Sunday 22 January 2012

An ill wind

I arrived on site and was joined by Dave Scanlan this morning to find that a strong westerly wind was making the birding tough. Generally, birders quite like gales as they can produce new birds. However, this rule applies more to reservoirs or coasts. On farmland all that happens is that the birds get flightier and harder to find.

Although there were no additions to the year list this morning, we gained ample compensation from a record count of 530 Lapwings and the accompanying Ruff. I made an effort to count the Yellowhammers scattered around, and got to 21 by the time we finished, although I didn't cover the whole of the site and from speaking to John Yardley, who we scoped in the distance, there were obviously additional birds we didn't come across.

The only other notable creature was a near miss for a personal mammal tick for the site when what I think was a Weasel ran across a gap in the hedgerow. Unfortunately I didn't see it well enough to be certain it wasn't a Stoat, but I didn't see a black tail tip and it looked the right shape.

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