Sunday 18 November 2012

Wood Pigs

I was due to feed at my feeding station this morning so I found myself mossward bound after a latish start due to a very late evening! It was a glorious morning with virtual clear skies and a light ESE wind.

The most numerous bird on my walk round were Woodpigeons. There seemed to be flock after flock feeding locally or heading east. On my walk I counted 2,815 and later in the morning I bumped into Phil who had estimated that he had seen perhaps 20,000 on his way over. That's a lot of Wood Pigs!

 Woodpigeons

Down at the feeding station numbers of Tree Sparrows had increased to 65 with about ten Chaffinch and a couple of Fieldfares accompanying them. Along the '97 hedge' were 11 Reed Buntings and when I walked back down the 97 hedge later I had a male Brambling.

As I approached the top of the 97 hedge I had three Roe Deers run in front of me and they leaped up onto the top fields. At the far end of the top fields were a further 85 Chaffinch and four Corn Buntings. At this point I had a male Hen Harrier head west being mobbed by a couple of Carrion Crows.

 Roe Deer

I decided to head across some unharvested wheat to see if there were any finches/buntings feeding in them, but there wasn't. However, they do look good for later in the winter during that 'hungry gap' time of year in Feb - Mar. All I had from the unharvested crops were seven Snipe, six Skylarks, a pair of Grey Partridge and a couple of Brown Hares.

Other than the Hen Harrier raptors were represented by just a single Buzzard and two Kestrels. As I approached the plantation three Whooper Swans flew over and I could hear Siskins calling from the Pine Wood. At this point it was time to head back to the feeding station to collect my seed bucket and head home.

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