Had a couple of nice walks round North Duffield village today. There was loads of thrushes this morning, a good 1000 Fieldfare either moving through towards the southwest, or dropping into a freshly ploughed stubble field and in with these several hundred Redwing, Blackbird and Song Thrush, also a lot of Starling too. In addition here there was a few Meadow Pipits and Linnets too.
Several Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit moved through the hedges and a few Lesser Redpoll, Chaffinch and Brambling flew south. A series of large puddles proved a great attraction for a mixed finch flock with Lesser Redpoll, Siskin, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Chaffinch all taking a bath and having a drink. A pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker and Bullfinch showed well.
A bit later I was enjoying several Jay, Green Woodpecker and some more Great Spotted Woodpecker and had a couple of Crossbill and a Grey Wagtail fly over.
Also had a Goldcrest and a flock of 40+ Goldfinch in the garden.
Late news from last week:
Last weekend I went down to North Duffield Carrs for an hour in the cold northerly wind and had very nice views of a Short-eared Owl, 3/4 Marsh Harriers and a giant of a Peregrine that was busy flushing pretty much everything on site!
On Thursday I went up to a new site we've just got in Northumberland, a big forested area so will be interesting to see what we get up there (if anything?!) started off with a few Crossbill and some Red Squirrel so not to be complained at.
Might be heading North tomorrow, Lesser Kestrel (if it is one?) would be a nice year tick - and hopefully a bit closer than the one I had a Minsmere a few years back and a Bee-eater would be a nice November tick! Think the last time I had Bee-eater in November they'd arrived on their wintering grounds near our house in Kenya! Just hope the fireworks don't scare everything off!!
Hoping to move next week all being well! Looking forward to seeing whats about in the area and exploring! Would love to grab a brambling for my list too are they often in the area?
ReplyDeleteHey Andy that's cool. Last winter they were rare in the York Area (just a couple seen around Castle Howard I think) but the winter before there was a lot around, I even had them in my garden on the bird table! http://awbirder.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/beautiful-barn-owls-and-brambling.html
ReplyDeleteI've only had a few so far this year locally, mainly flyovers, but I know others have had them around Wheldrake and York... good chance I think.