Sunday 21 December 2014

overdue update

Sorry its been a bit quiet on the blog front but the Christmas rush has made visits to the patch not as regular as they should have been .
The patch has slipped into the winter doldrums and there have been very few high lights apart from Tawny Owls which have been vocal and on Thursday a Little Owl which called several times .
 So Willow and I ventured onto the patch in the hope that maybe Santa may deliver something cracking into my Christmas Stocking as you who read this drivel know I have been or at least tried to have been a good boy this year. He did not deliver and the bird life was what I would of expected to have found at this time of year.
The winter Thrush count for today amounted to 52 plus Redwing, 25 plus Field fare ,2  Mistle Thrush ,the odd Song Thrush and around 19 plus Blackbird.
The only birds of note in the hedges were a passing flock of 10 Long Tailed Tits  ,and an assortment of Finches in one area with 15 plus Chaffinch ,10 plus Goldfinch and 4 Greenfinch all together .
It was quite good on the pastures however with 20 plus Meadow Pipits and a good count of 17 plus Pied wagtails feeding on the manured fields .There were also a small flock of 4 Stock Dove present.
The flock of Skylarks that winter with us only amounted to 7 plus Birds today ,a lower number than I would of expected.
On the raptor front a male Sparrow Hawk cruised over the garden and there were 2 Kestrel hunting the patch today. The Buzzard count got to 3 today .
The only other birds of note were 2 Jays calling to each other and the usual Green Woodpecker .
So it looks as if the patch is limping over the line towards the end of the year and unless we get some cold weather I cannot see us getting another species to add to our tally for the year