Wednesday 19 August 2009

Corbie On The Moss...18th August

I had some seed to drop off at Moss House Farm so I decided to have a couple of hours wandering around Rawcliffe Moss. It was a fairly quiet morning but I did have a few bits and pieces.

First up were two of the above along the feeding station hedge. I later had another 2 along another hedge. Now the Tree Sparrows have found the boxes here a small breeding population is building up. It is my intention to put some more boxes up here this winter.

I had good numbers of Goldfinch this morning and the total in my notebook is exactly 100! The majority of these, 86, were feeding in some thistle along the 'big field'. It was pleasing to note that Phillip has re-sown the wild bird seed plots in recent weeks, providing some welcome feed and cover for the coming winter.

Picture courtesy of Kane

Hirundines were on the move in small numbers and I had 30 Swallows and 16 House Martins south. Vis mig is never that brilliant here in the heart of the Fylde as you might imagine. There is no 'topography' as such to move birds along. The commonest Warbler I had by far was Whitethroat and I had a total of 10 in various locations. The warbler supporting cast consisted of 4 Willow Warblers, Blackcap and a skulking Lesser 'throat'.

A few butterflies were on the wing even though it was fairly early in the morning; mind you it was very warm for the time of morning. I had plenty of Small and Green-veined Whites with a few Painted Lady's and Wall Browns.

As I walked along the track towards the plantation crossing the front of the 'L' Wood I heard the raucous call of the Corbie in my title. I stopped and a Raven flew across the track and headed east. Corbie is a name given to Ravens in the north of England. Looking east across the front of the 'L' Wood a Buzzard was flying low across the field being mobbed by a large number of corvids and a single Lesser Black-backed Gull. I had another Buzzard north of the plantation.

The walk back to the car from the plantation was fairly quite, but on reflection I had a fairly good morning.

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