Thursday 18 December 2014

Beating Those Birding Blues

At last my Man Flu has subsided enough enabling me to get out to the feeding station yesterday and to do a bit of birding this morning. I must admit I'm not out of the woods yet, but I had to get out to beat those birding blues.

Numbers of birds at the feeding station seem to have dropped off a little of late and I am assuming it is because of the mild weather we are having at the moment. When it was cold the apples were going down and now these are hardly being touched. Totals yesterday included four Yellowhammers, seven Chaffinches and 55 Tree Sparrows.

I had a couple of 'odds and sods' walking down to the feeding station including a Buzzard, a Whooper Swan and a Mistle Thrush which isn't overly regular here. On my way home I called at the flood and there were no Redshanks and just one Green Sandpiper.

It hasn't seemed to get light today and I can't believe that 'birding light' isn't really until nearer half past eight at the moment, mind you we are in spitting distance of the shortest day of the year now! So why I got to the Point not much after eight I'm not sure! I headed to the observation tower, found some shelter, had a coffee, had another coffee and finally it was light enough to have a look on the sea.

It was very murky out at sea and consequently it was hard work, so I only spent an hour there, and didn't see a great deal. Best of a meagre bunch was a Shag that flew in to the Bay and an adult Med Gull that flew out. Other than that I had just two Red-breasted Mergansers and ten Eiders.

After a coffee at Ian's and half an hour putting the birding world to rights, particularly those pesky bird photographer types who are continually harassing the Shore Lark at the minute, it was time to head home. The forecast isn't the best over the next few days, but on Saturday we might be able to get to the Finch roost. Fingers crossed!

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