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...
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...
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?
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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