Same Old, Same Old

The title refers to both the weather and the birds at the moment. It was my intention this morning to have a walk round Rawcliffe Moss once I had fed the Tree Sparrows, but the weather put paid to this. Looking at the forecast last night it was one of those 'will it or won't it' situations in terms of whether it would rain this morning and it was a 'will it' morning. It did clear up later on but it was too late for me.

As usual at the barn as I picked up the seed a Grey Wagtail fed at the base of the tailings mountain. I must take a picture of the 'tailings mountain' for you so you know what I am on about. Up to this point I was optimistic because it wasn't raining, but as I drove down the lane to the track it started to rain and didn't stop all the time I was there.

Getting out of the car I noticed that Phillip had been clearing the ditch in an attempt to try and stop his land from flooding as much, as you will appreciate from some of the pictures I have posted on here recently.


As I was looking at the cleaned-out ditch thirty Jackdaws noisily flew east and 405 Pink-footed Geese flew west.


There were a large number of corvids and Woodpigeons feeding in stubbles on the neighbouring farm and this is probably where the Jackdaws were flying from and the 'Pinkies' to.


Walking down the hedge I pushed eight Blackbirds along it and I could hear Redwing calling and at the same time a group of eleven Fieldfares were coming in to feed. There are still a large number of berries along this hedge and when the sun came out momentarily they gave off a red hue.


Tree Sparrows numbered 224, or thereabouts, and they were accompanied by 18 Chaffinch. As I walked back towards the car I thought to myself that I hadn't seen Yellowhammer recently and one flew out of the hedge and a couple of Corn Buntings went over calling. Calling birds would be a feature for the next minute or three as I had calling Buzzard and Great Spotted Woodpecker, both of which I couldn't see. Back at the car the sun came out briefly again and the first bird I recorded in my notebook was a Reed Bunting sat on an exposed branch along the ditch in the sun.