Its wild out.....

Its a bit breezy out there. Today is the first time I've seen the patch in daylight since Tuesday, and remember, my house is in it. This makes the birding quite tricky, but never fear, slowly but surely the days will lengthen and before too long there may even be some birds to see after work.

The other night I was out filling some logs for the fire ( what a rural idyll eh!) when an angry hissing sound over head signalled the presence of a Barn Owl flying across the garden towards its hunting grounds. There are several pairs in this area so its not something to get too excited over, but always nice to see, its added to the year list. The following morning I had better views of a different bird, this time on Mr Cadwallenders patch at Hipsburn as it hunted the verges in the car headlights.

So, today has turned out bright and sunny but still blowing a cold gale interspersed with the odd awful, horizontal, rain squalls. A walk out with the dog still produced a couple of new additions though. In the back field, a nice flock of feeding birds consisted of 30+ Redwings, 10+ Mistle Thrush, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Song Thrush and a couple of Blackbirds, plus 100+ Linnets and a lone Skylark.

Down the lane, a cock Greenfinch flushed from below a bramble bush where it was feeding on the withered seeded fruits.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'll try and put a couple of hours in first thing...

64. Barn Owl 
65. Fieldfare
66. Skylark
67. Greenfinch.