A Very Pleasant Session at the Winter Feeding Station

A beautifully mild day today with mixed sun and clouds.  The roads had dried out nicely too so the car kept reasonable clean!!  Once at the wood, I pottered around happily for a while setting up my perches for woodpecker, nuthatch and tits etc.  Although it was sheltered in the wood it was breezy and there was the constant sound of wind in the trees like distant waves on the shore.  It was good to hear the mewing of the buzzard as it soared above the tree tops and the cheerful sound of the chattering rooks as they busied with their nests was uplifting.

As soon as I settled into the hide the birds were straight back onto the feeders.  On of the first birds down was the male woodpecker.  It was good the see after getting the female on my last visit.  As with the female this bird was much more confident than the male from last year.  There was a constant stream of small birds on the fat block and tray that I had filled up with peanuts, sunflower hearts and meal worms.  It took a while for the nuthatches (at least 2 different birds) but soon they were visiting regularly.  It was an afternoon of mixed cloud and sun and when the sun was out the light was stunning.

Birds included:-

• great spotted woodpecker male
• blue tit
• great tit
• long tailed tit
• coal tit
• chaffinch - male and female
• robin
• pheasant - one male and 3 females
• grey squirrel

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Chaffinch - Male

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Great Tit

Grey Squirrel

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Long Tailed Tit

Long Tailed Tit

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Pheasant Male

Pheasants Female

The Beast From The East

Overnight on Tuesday 27th February and into the morning of Wednesday 28th the promised snow finally hit us.  Reluctant to get the car out and after a busy morning we decided to walk across The Horsefield and through Weelsby Woods to Pennell's Garden Centre for a late lunch.  Squeezing through the railings behind Edge Avenue shops brought us out behind Scartho School and onto the 'Edgeland' between us and Weelsby Woods.

Edgelands are the transitional, liminal areas of space to be found on the boundaries of country and town.  As urban areas spread these are becoming an increasingly important aspect of the twenty-first century world.  The concept of Edgelands was first introduced by Marion Shoard in 2002, to cover the disorganised but often fertile hinterland between planned town and country.  Somehow, she says, we know immediately the meaning of "edgelands". The word evokes zones where overspill housing estates peter out or factories give way to black fields or scrubland (I am a big fan of scrubland - ask my family!); where unkempt areas become home to allotments, mobile-phone masts, sewage works, cooling towers, dens, places of forgetting, dumping and landfill.  Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley wrote an excellent book on Edgelands in 2012 : Edgelands: Journeys Into England's True Wilderness which I read as part of my degree research.  I can highly recommend it.

I have had a long association with our edgeland, officially Gooseman's Field, but which we nickname The Horsefield because of the traveller horses that are tethered out there.  Over the years it has been a place to run, walk and photograph the abundant wildlife especially butterflies.  

On this day, as soon as we were out into the teeth of the strong easterly wind, temperatures became arctic.  The light was intermittently wonderfully dramatic with the trees hedgerows and bleached winter grasses highlighted against the black, lowering snow clouds and then a blizzard would sweep in and the view disappeared in the whiteout.  I was fascinated by the spin-drift whirling dervish-like across the fields.  Weelsby Woods was a hive of activity with children, released by school closures, making the most of the snow  sledging and snowballing.  We were well pleased to reach the warmth of Pennell's and a welcome beef pie. 

With the wind behind us the walk home seemed to go more quickly.  Once back it was good to light the wood burner, settle down with a cup of tea and a book and reflect on an excellent walk and our microadventure.

Feeding Station 2018

Rather belatedly this winter I decided to set up the winter feeding station out in the Wolds on a grey, wet and cold Monday 19th February, accompanied by my able and willing assistant.  Despite the gloom a flock of rooks was noisy and busy high in the trees in the back meadow.  Although it is a long time since rooks nested here, they keep trying and, hopefully, one year they will be successful.  It was also good to see a buzzard soaring overhead, its wild mewing call echoing through the wood.  Once recovered from the barn the hide was soon erected in a slightly different position and the feeders filled up.  Time for tea and cake.

I returned a few days later on Saturday 24th to top up the feeders.  Fortunately the weather had changed and was now bright, sunny and cold.  Sitting in the hide made me realise how much I had missed just being here and watching the bustling activity as birds fed hungrily.  As expected there were large numbers of blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits as well as blackbirds and chaffinches feeding on the ground.  The carpets of aconites and snowdrops were in their prime.

By Tuesday 27th the weather had definitely taken a turn for the worst and the woods had donned their winter mantle as 'The Beast from the East' headed our way.  It was bitterly cold with snow showers and I had somewhat of a problem driving out with the icy roads.  The wood was quiet and muffled under its mantle of fresh snow.  Virtually all of the food had gone.  Quickly setting up one or two situations for photography I set up the camera and settled into the hide.  Activity was brisk and the birds were soon back.  As expected all of the species from the previous week were there as well as robins, pheasant, nuthatch and male and female woodpeckers.  As usual the nuthatches and woodpeckers were heard calling before they came down to feed.  Previously when woodpeckers visited they were very shy and wary, but these birds seemed much more confident.  I was delighted to see the female as only a male had visited in the past, although many years ago I had photographed a pair at the nest.  After a very enjoyable and successful session it was time to get home before I became snowed in.  On the way back to the car I disturbed a sparrowhawk on its kill.  After the rush of the raptor flying off with its prey all that remained was a cluster of downy feathers and blood-speckled snow.

Robin

Great spotted woodpecker, female

Great spotted woodpecker, female

Great spotted woodpecker, female

Nuthatch

Robin

Robin

Robin

For the remainder of the week winter set in with a vengeance and it was impossible to get out until Sunday 4th March despite the need to check on the feeders.  I expected to find the hide collapsed either under the weight of snow or the pressure of the gale force easterly winds of Storm Emma.  After seeing to the food I had 10 minutes in the hide and as well as the usual birds I was pleased to see a wren visit.  The wood had taken on a grey, misty air of mystery today and the snowdrops were now looking rather sad.