Icy Blast

My thermometer read minus 5 degrees Celsius as I drove on to Rawcliffe Moss this morning just as the sun was peeping above the eastern horizon. It was a beautiful morning and I wished that I wasn't going to be sat in a meeting later on.

The number of bird species singing in the morning is increasing now and it was pleasing to hear a Chaffinch singing its head off from Curlew Wood. Other species singing were Great Spotted Woodpecker (err...well..drumming), Corn Bunting, Blackbird, Wren, Dunnock and Robin.


Walking down towards the feeding station I noticed there were a few more Blackbirds about and I had twelve in total. It might just have been the fact that I was there earlier than normal and therefore a few more birds were feeding. Also feeding on the ground were 39 Starlings and as they flew off they flushed a Great Spotted Woodpecker from one of the nut feeders. In addition to this and the drumming bird I had another drumming, making three in all.

There was certainly a few more Yellowhammers around and these weren't just confined to the feeding station area; in total I had 22. Talking of the feeding station there were 105 Tree Sparrows (they were still arriving whilst I was there), fifteen Chaffinches and the usual four Grey Partridges. I had another pair of Grey Partridges in the field to the north of Curlew Wood.

As I mentioned before the Yellowhammers were scattered around a bit and with a few birds feeding in the margin alongside the 97 hedge were five Reed Buntings. Back at the barn I had ten Corn Buntings, and I don't doubt that later in the morning these birds would have increased to 30 or 40.