Sunday, 19 February 2012

Sunny Sunday

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning when Gail and I went to feed the Tree Sparrows on Rawcliffe Moss today. We fed the usual mix of food and then had a walk across the moss to see what we could see. At the feeding station were 168 Tree Sparrows, 17 Chaffinch and 9 Yellowhammers.

As we headed up the '97 hedge' all we had were 7 Reed Buntings, but we could see a good number of small birds lifting from the wildbird seed plot ahead. As we walked through we had 200 Chaffinch, 60 Skylarks, 30 Linnets, 5 Corn Buntings and a Short-eared Owl.

Somewhere in here are 200 Chaffinch, 60 Skylarks, 30 Linnets, 
5 Corn Buntings and a Short-eared Owl!

We then headed across the stubble towards the plantation and had 11 Brown Hares and some of the females were 'boxing' the males to drive off their unwanted attention! In the fields to the south and west of the plantation were 700 Lapwing and 11 Stock Doves.

 I spotted this Six-spotted Ladybird over wintering next to one of Phil's 
mist net guys

Walking back to the track we flushed 3 Grey Partridges and something was continually spooking all the Corvids, Lapwings and Pink-footed Geese but we couldn't see what. My best guess was either a Peregrine or the Hen Harrier. The 'Pink-feet' numbered 3,500, which is the highest count I have had on the moss for some weeks.

 I 'snapped' these Snowdrops under a hedge as we walked back to the car

All in all a pleasant walk and a nice mix of farmland birds!

2 comments:

Alan Pavey said...

Good numbers again :-)

The Hairy Birder said...

They are good numbers Alan, and I shouldn't complain, but I am always glad when I close the feeding station in Spring! Mind you, when early winter comes round again I always look forward to opening teh feeding station again!