Great trip to Planstsbrook Local Nature Reserve this morning where it was nice and crisp with lovely blue skies for most of the visit.
Obviously there were a lot of Tits and Finches around but I've never seen and heard so many Robins as I have today, they were everywhere today, including all around all three pools and in bushes and trees.
The waterfowl were abundant on all the pools but espeically the larger one, clearly there were a lot of Mallard, Coot and Moorhen but it was also great to see, Shoveler, Goosander, Gadwall as well as the resident Muscovy Duck and two new birds, a lovely pair of Domestic Ducks who seem to be a real pair as when one did anything the other copied it straight away, on the smaller pool held a Little Egret in the left hand corner as you enter form the car park while the medium pool had a Grey Heron fishing in it's usual left hand corner, a spot the Heron's have always loved since my very first visit.
Birds seen today were, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Shoveler, Goosander, Gadwall, Great Crested Grebe, Muscovy Duck, Domestic Duck, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Moorhen, Coot and Canada Goose.
The only bad thing about the visit was seeing a Coot with a bad leg which was being bullied by the other Coots, unfortunately it looked like the injury was down to where 'fishermen' have discarded fishing line as it was halfway up the leg, this is something which really, really annoys me, especially when these people will tell you that they love wildlife.
It was great to the place being well cared for and people are actually taking pride in this wonderful location of which I will definitely paying a lot more visits to this year.
Great visit as usual to
Southfields Farm today, where it was lovely and crisp, even though I say
it was a great visit there wasn't much bird activity at all but it's
not always about seeing lots of birds, it's just nice to get out and
about, a word of warning if you're planning a visit there anytime soon
be sure to wear wellies or a decent pair of walking boots as large parts of the farm are under water or very muddy, worth it though.
I didn't speak to John (The Farmer) which was a shame as I wanted to know why there appears to have been no supplementary seed left anywhere which is not good news especially as we are now in the 'hunger gap', hopefully I'll find out why or if I'm wrong on my next visit, thankfully this location is managed with birds/wildlife in mind.
As usual there were hundreds of House Sparrow present by the outbuildings/car park, but the other birds I usually expect to see in high numbers were sadly lacking, instead of hundreds of Linnet, I saw c.30 which obviously may have been a coincidence but in the Winter I have never seen with in two digits before, I also thought I would see plenty of Redwing and Fieldfare, well I didn't see a single Redwing and only one Fieldfare, I also didn't see a single Yellowhammer or Starling either, which was a real shame.
Anyway enough of the negativity, on the plus side, other than the House Sparrow's it was great to see Fieldfare, Mistle Thrush, Jay, Pheasant, a Grey Heron fishing and large numbers of Tits and Finches all around the farm.
Birds seen today were, Buzzard, Linnet, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Fieldfare, Mistle Thrush, Jay, Woodpigeon, Carrion, Crow, Magpie, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Grey Heron, Moorhen and Mallard.
Nice trip out to Sutton Park this morning, even if it was very windy, always nice to 'get back to nature' no matter what the weather is like.
Apart from the pool (Longmoor) it was very quiet bird wise unless you count the hundreds of Carrion Crow who always congregate near the car parks.
Birds seen today were, Siskin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Wren, Robin, Starling, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Moorhen and Coot.
Obviously, the highlight of the day was the sighting of Siskin, even if it was a very small flock.
Sadly one corner of the pool was absolutely full of litter, with the most of it being plastic, which is something that's always sad to see as was the large swathes of burnt Gorse, horrible to think that there was probably nesting birds in there at the time of the arson attack, mindless morons!
