Season of Mists and Buggger All Birds

I dropped some bird food off at Moss House Farm today (3rd) and decided to have a walk round to see what was about. I was hoping that the mist would have cleared and it would have warmed up a bit, but it didn't. I suppose the first thing to say is that I didn't have a single summer migrant, I had some migrant birds but not summer migrants.

There was plenty activity from displaying Lapwings as a lot of spring cereals are going in this year and there is a large amount of available habitat. Likewise, Skylarks were active with around 5 singing males. I had a few small flocks of finches, that gave it a more wintry feel, with 14 Linnets, 11 Tree Sparrows and 21 Goldfinch (including one with a ring on).

Brown Hares were quite numerous with animals dotted around, mainly in arable fields, and good numbers of Curlew were feeding in sprayed-off stubbles. In fact the Curlew total of 181 is the most that I have had at 'the farm'.

I then had a walk through the plantation but had very little. I stopped to look on the pool and push some of the steeper edges in to try and create some sloping edges that will be more beneficial for wildlife. The pond was originally dug as a flight pond for wildfowl and therefore doesn't have the necessary structures for a wildlife pond.

The pool

Below is a picture of one of our mist net rides that runs adjacent to the pool.

Walking back from the plantation to my car I recorded very little other than 8 Roe Deer, 2 Stock Dove, 2 Buzzards, Lesser Redpoll and 3 Grey Partridges.