Thursday 22 February 2018

News from the patch and its surrounds

I missed a text from Chris L a few days ago. He had been to Morton Bagot and had seen a Shelduck and a Wigeon. These would both be year-ticks, but they are species I expect to see without too much difficulty this year.

Potentially more exciting, he also had two Tree Sparrows at Castle Farm, literally within sight of the patch. Just three fields away, but it might as well be an ocean because Tree Sparrows are site faithful to a ridiculous degree.

Nevertheless it proves the area did not lose all of its Tree Sparrows in that fateful winter five years ago.

Slightly further away, Neil D alerted me to the presence of 14 Hawfinches at the Virgin Mary Church  near Studley castle. Lyn and I called in on the way back from Hillers, but without binoculars, and they seemed to have disappeared. Definitely a place to watch though.

Finally, if you followed the link to Neil's blog out4aduck.blogspot.com/ you will see that there has been a mini-murmuration of Starlings visible from the top of the car-park in the middle of Redditch this week. Worth a look.

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