Mike's Natural Musings: January 2022

Sunday, 30 January 2022

Good to See Bullfinches in the Woodland Burial Ground

It was good to see two pairs of bullfinches feeding on buds in the woodland burial ground today. They were in exactly the same spot as I photographed them last year feeding on blossom. I didn't take the camera so the images are from 2021. We had a pleasant walk in the sun with Jet and despite being only 5C it felt warm in the sun. It was difficult to believe that a second storm in two days, Corrie this time, was headed our way. Apart from the bullfinches the other highlight was a large flock of long-tailed tit foraging in the plantation. Although the ground is drying out it was soft enough to take the impressions of the roe deer prints. Snowdrops in flower nor and hazel catkins beginning to shrivel.

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Friday, 28 January 2022

Greenfinches in the Garden

I was delighted, today to see a flock of 5 green finches moving through the garden. I can't remember the last time I saw a greenfinch; a real treat and fantastic news.

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Thursday, 27 January 2022

A Walk Along the Freshney Valley

A very pleasant walk along the Freshney Valley today to exercise Jet. It was a fairly mild afternoon at 11C and felt warm despite the brisk NW wind. We walked through Town Holt and out into the open valley beyond where the river becomes Laceby Beck, one of Lincolnshire's precious chalk streams which rises in blow wells near Laceby village. We made our way as far as the impressive lone surviving elm tree in the area.

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Wednesday, 26 January 2022

A Second Woodpecker at the Feeding Station.

A very pleasant session at the winter feeding station today. I had two visits from a very nervous male great spotted woodpecker at approximately an hour apart. The second the bird saw the lens move he few away. After another hour I had another visit, this time the bird approached from a different direction and was much more confident. It was only when reviewing the images on the back of the camera that I realised that this bird was a female. No doubt, like people, wild creatures have different characteristics. I was pleased to see two nuthatches at the same time today so that means that there are at least two individuals around and probably more.

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Blackbird

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Great Spotted Woodpecker - Female

Long-Tailed Tit

Nuthatch

Robin

Saturday, 22 January 2022

An Excellent Day on a New Reserve

I found the hole in the tree in the 'scope and, as I zoomed in, the back of the hole morphed into the face of a tawny owl. Excellent, my first for this year. To be fair a regular birder had told me where to look but I finished my day with several new for year species. Heather and I were staying at South Cave in the fine Cave Castle Hotel for a weekend yoga retreat so I used the excuse of a creaky back to spend the day exploring a new reserve for me: North Cave Wetlands, only 15 minutes away. It was a perfect morning: blue skies and a hard frost but the sun made it feel quite pleasant. When I parked up the Butty Van looked very tempting but fresh from a full English breakfast and a large evening meal to come I desisted. The reserve is relatively new and is in old gravel workings. Some of the old pits are well rewilded now but others are in the process of allowing nature to reclaim them. The route around the reserve is a square with several hides overlooking the workings. Other areas, such as the maize field, have been developed to be attractive to a range of bird species and the site is well-supplied with feeding stations and hedges. Most of the pits were iced over so not ideal for the birds but at the Crosslands hide the water was open and there were large numbers of waders and wildfowl. Highlights of the day for me were a pair of ruff at Crosslands along with 2 black-tailed godwit, good numbers of siskin, the tawny and a peregrine. I did take the trouble to make the walk to where a little owl was a regular but it had gone by the time I arrived. Such is life. The sky had clouded over by 2.30 and it was time to return to the hotel for a cup of tea and thoughts of a swim in the lovely pool.

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Reed Bunting

Robin

Tuesday, 18 January 2022

Rare Birds at Frampton RSPB Reserve.

All day the background sounds were the deep guttural mutterings of brent geese overlaid by the higher pitched susurations of smaller waders, mainly golden plover. There were thousands of both birds present at RSPB Frampton yesterday as well as similar numbers of lapwing and wigeon. It was stunning to be surrounded by so many birds all day. Along with the sounds we were periodically treated to the spectacular sight of thousands of waders wheeling in the air in a murmuration, possibly when frighted by a passing raptor. This was probably marsh harrier, although kestrel, merlin and hen harrier were also present. The brent geese were also constantly filling the sky as they flew backwards and forwards from their Wash feeding grounds like squadrons of heavy bombers flying in formation.

Brian and I had arrived in the car park around 11.00 am and were somewhat dismayed by the large numbers of birders setting out from the car park. As it turned out the large size of the reserve swallowed up the numbers and I put it down to the beautiful weather - a perfect winter day with cloudless skies and temperatures around 4C. Having checked in at the visitor centre we headed down through the centre of the reserve along the main track to the sea wall. From up here there are spectacular views over the lagoons and scrapes of the reserve as well as out over the expansive salt marsh towards the River Welland and The Wash beyond. We enjoyed lunch in the sun here, delighting in views of birds wheeling in the air and also the stirring sight of that mini-raider, a female merlin, which zipped across in front of us and then gave excellent views through the 'scope as it perched on a nearby fence post.

After lunch we dropped back down onto the reserve and followed the path to the East Hide. The highlight from here was finding one of the 3 little stints on the reserve. It was in the company of a dunlin so it was satisfying to be able to compare sizes, the stint being about 2/3 the size of the dunlin. Whilst walking around to the 360 hide we had excellent views of a pair of stonechat which I was able to photograph and then another male as we approached the 360 hide. Here there were more views of the stint and dunlin as well as close views of lapwing and greylag geese.

Eventually it was time to return to the centre and think about the journey home but first we checked the sightings board. We had missed one or two good birds: hen harrier, whooper swan and long-tailed duck, but we had enjoyed one of my best days at Frampton, topped off by excellent views of ruff and snipe in perfect light just before returning to the car.

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