Monday 2 February 2015

50 UP !

Well the weekend past was a really cold affair with a rapier like north wind ,sleet showers ,hard frost and a general cold feel to proceedings. I was hoping the colder weather would bring something a little less usual to the feeders but no such luck. although the feeders have been heaving with all the usual suspects, its costing me a small fortune on bird food .
 Saturday started with a sleet shower and then became sunny but very cold. Winter Thrush were scattered over the patch with still good numbers of Blackbirds about I counted 27 plus today along with 11 Fieldfare and 53 plus Redwing .The other Thrush species chipped in with 5 Song and just 1 Mistle Thrush today.
On the pastures themselves bird numbers were down with just 6 Meadow Pipits and a fair number of Skylark with 21 plus ,  perhaps the odd upturn in numbers are birds just moving around their winter territories or are they birds filtering back north ? .The odd Pied Wagtail put in an appearance and it was fair to say there were a good few Gulls passing over, especially Black Headed with over 100 plus passing north towards feeding grounds on the Cotswold etc, part of me likes to think that they maybe the first spring migrants. Other Gull species were Lesser Black Backed ,Common and Herring.
A small flock of 20 Chaffinch passed west perhaps moving because of the hard weather. Woodpeckers were represented with 2 Greater Spotted Woodpecker ,one of which was drumming and a vocal Green Woodpecker that went unseen . 
On the raptor front were 4 Buzzards that seemed to like the conditions and a pair of very vocal Kestrel . So the patch continues in the mid to late winter vain at the moment and although quiet sometimes the odd surprise can occur.
Sunday was brighter although the wind was even more bone numbing ! 
On the bird front it was much the same as the day before although a good number of Redwing with 98 and 5 Fieldfare were on pasture next to the cottage. Having seen that I thought the patch was going to be in good form but in fact it was very quiet although the blanket of Blackbirds were still in evidence with 34 plus today ,a high count for the winter so far ! .Other winter Thrush today were 54 plus redwing, 19 plus Fieldfare and 3 Mistle Thrush. I am going to miss all these Thrush when they disappear northwards.
Again the pastures were quiet with 8 Meadow Pipits and 14 plus Skylark, maybe the birds were hunkered down against the wind . 8 Stock Dove were around breeding area with some display flying.  A few Pied Wagtails passed south west in search of warmer climes perhaps. It was then the highlight of the walk took place when the   50th species popped out of a small pond when a pair of Mallard lept out in front of me  , not a rare bird but the first of the year for the patch.
The best of the rest were a flock of 45 Black Headed Gulls which paused to feed amongst a flock of sheep before moving north and a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.
So with January passed we stand at 50 species and with 48 weeks to go I have to find 40 species if I am to reach my goal of 90 species for the year for the patch .Its going to be a tall order so bring on the spring or even better a few cold weather birds.