Full of hope as ever for the new year… Our (small) garden proved surprisingly attractive for birds in the cold weather mid-month. Our son had heavily pruned our Siberian Crab-apple over Christmas and the fallen fruit proved irresistible particularly for thrushes with all five regular species seen...
and particularly good numbers of Blackbirds with a maximum
count of (genuinely!) four-and-twenty (but no pies).
Lots of finches too including a lovely pair of Bullfinch who
rejected the crabs for the seeds of aquilegia which they extracted whilst
clumsily ‘hovering’.
The crab-apple was also the main attraction for both male
and female Blackcap on the 13th with the female present on and off
right through to the month end…
Away from here other sightings included both
Green Sandpiper and Redshank on the river and at least two skeins of Pink-footed
Geese over the village. A large Linnet flock along Myer’s Lane held an
estimated 370 birds and 150 Golden Plover flew over the river on 1st
January. Tracey found a Red Kite along Greenhills Lane, still a rare bird for the village.
Unsurprisingly the constant wet weather produced some flooding…
As the waters drained there were good numbers of Lapwings
seen (c140) and 32 Curlew were feeding on Langlands. Around 400 Greylags were in
the flooded fields at the far end of Langlands…
But apart from Mallard, Teal were the only duck seen…
The slightly milder weather on the 17th meant I optimistically tried the moth trap in the garden. Six moths, which is six more than I expected, included a Dark Chestnut and five Pale Brindled Beautys (new for the village). Only one of the PBB was in the trap with three on the side of the house…
Village Bird list to end of January - 59 species.
