More Yellow Bunts

I was a long way from Fleetwood today, in fact I was wandering round an arable farm near Bickerstaffe, Merseyside that I put into Countryside Stewardship a good few years ago now. I was having a walk round in preparation for a walk I am leading there in a few weeks time. So I wanted to work out a route and think about some of the habitat work that has been done to talk about.

It was pleasing to see that there was a good selection of farmland birds to be had even though it was a pretty awful morning weather wise. I had four coveys of Grey Partridge; 4, 9, 2 and 5. In fact the last 5 were leking in a rough field corner. Rough field corners are excellent for wildlife and I am always asking farmers not to be too tidy!

I have noticed over this past week that there have been a few more winter Thrushes around. Whether this is weather displaced birds returning I am not sure. I was out walking in the Silverdale area last Sunday and had 30 Redwings, and today I had 16 Fieldfares and 5 Redwings feeding in a small paddock.

 Redwing

Walking along a track I had a flock of 7 or 8 Corn Buntings fly over and then further on I had a further 21 perched up on some telegraph wires. As I approached a hedge alongside some stubble turnips I had a nice flock of Yellowhammers and in total I counted 72 birds, which is one of the largest flocks of Yellow Bunts I have had for some time.

 Corn Bunting

Walking back to the yard I had a couple of Skylarks, 2 Reed Buntings, 30 Pink-footed Geese and a Buzzard; so it wasn't a bad selection of farmland birds for a dreary Wednesday morning!

Reed Bunting