Now I Know Where the Copper Heads Go, 15th December 2008

For a while it has been puzzling me where the Tree Sparrows go when they fly off from the feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss. They usually head northwest and I have assumed they have been going to another feeding station such as Bradshaw Lane. That might still be the case for some of them but I now know that some are just moving to a stubble field to the north of Curlew Wood.

After I fed today I had a walk across the stubble field to the north of Curlew Wood and there were 60-70 Tree Sparrows in the hedge alongside the field and they were dropping into the field to feed and so were about 30 Linnets. At the feeding station today I had 169 Tree Sparrows so numbers are remaining fairly stable.

Woodpigeons were back in force again today and I had 3,148 feeding in various bits of stubble dotted around the farm. At one stage 6 Roe Deer flushed a flock of 2,000 from stubble into the tree tops of adjacent woodland. Walking up the '97' hedge I flushed 10 Snipe off some flooded stubble and 2 Buzzards went over calling.

After I had discovered the alternative Tree Sparrow feeding site I had 4 Yellowhammers perched on top of a Hawthorn hedge and back at the car I had a male Stonechat.

Today's random picture is of a 'smokey' 1st winter male Blackbird that is very likely of continental origin.