Friday 13 February 2009

No Corn Buntings- Again! 12th February 2009

I had lamented the lack of Corn Buntings a few blogs ago and then had 70 last weekend and when I went to feed at Moss House Farm yesterday there weren't any again. So that scuppered my plans of ringing a few of them!

I didn't have long when I fed yesterday as I had called in between jobs. It was noticeable that there were a few more Blackbirds and Song Thrush around as I had 15 and 6 of each. Ten Yellowhammers dropped into the hedge as I put on my wellies which was nice and for a short while 72 Linnets were where the Corn Buntings were supposed to be before they flew to feed in the 'big' field.

The numbers of Woodpigeons remained high with at least 4,000 birds and Jackdaws numbered 800. There were 85 Tree Sparrows and that was it other than 9 Roe Deer.

Earlier in the week I had the good fortune to call at my Pied Flycatcher nest box site as part of my job, so it gave me the opportunity to have a walk round and check the condition of the boxes. I have 35 boxes up at the Boar Park in the Hodder Valley and 8 are in need of replacing, so I had better get building! On my walk round I got Dipper for my year list and was hoping for Marsh Tit at the feeding station but I couldn't locate any.

On the subject of boxes one of the species besides Pied Flycatcher that I get in the boxes is Blue Tit and they have been struggling these past two years to get any decent sized broods off, so I have shown a picture of a Blue Tit in the hand below.

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