A couple of visits to Boulmer today were very quiet on the bird front. Frustratingly, a male Bullfinch was in a hedge about 200 yards outside the patch. It would have been a new species on the Boulmer list. A Snow Bunting circled around high overhead calling first thing this morning.
As the day seemed to be slow on the patch, I did a couple of atlas tetrads before lunch. One was near Lesbury, the other at Littlemill Quarry...
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Above Top - Hedgerow near River Aln, Lesbury. Bottom - Littlemill Quarry, partly frozen up. The ice was creaking and whistling against the stone quarry walls. Very eerie...
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The Lesbury tetrad recorded 34 species while the Littlemill one could only manage 25.There were no suprises other than a Peacock butterfly strongly flying over a frosted field, but 2 Treecreepers, several Redwings, 2 Great spotted Woodpeckers, Buzzard, 3 Bullfinches and Goosander were all nice to see. Birds proved difficult to get close to today for some reason. Maybe it was the crunching of frost underfoot?
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These tracks were found in hardened mud in different spots today, top, Rat and bottom the broad 'pug' mark of a Badger. Two Roe Deer startled off through the woods and two Brown Hares grazed on some newly sprouting wheat.
4 comments:
Another great set of posts there Stewart. Do you know, i like to see a bit of habitat in the bird pics.
Sorry Stewart. Did`nt mean for the above comment to come through as anonymous.
Right - that's it! I'm moving north - bright and clear - what's that's then - you don't mean - Sun, do you Stewart!!!? (Grey, grey and grey down South)
Some nice birds there - and a Peacock flutter - amazing!
Wow, I can hardly believe that you saw a Peacock Butterfly on that frosty morning. What wonderful things you get to see. Great pictures.
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