February 2011 - Local Patch.

A walk through two local woods recently, yielded a surprising host of birds. A bright sunny day always helps and though cold, that big yellow ball in the blue sky made for good conditions for us and the birds! Across the road from our estate is a small wood...well, a wooded area beside Cantley Road. In fact on older maps, it is known as Church Plantation.

Earlier this year or late last year Sandra had seen 30+ Redwings here and she was keen to see if they were still in residence. Luckily they were. We're not sure exactly how many but we did see quite a few, 20+. Unless you are almost on top of them, they are not very photogenic as they spend most of their time on the ground amongst the leaf litter and so blend in remarkably well! I did get a few good pics as can be seen here.

A Chaffinch was very obliging and supplied an unusual shot from below. Blue and great Tits along with a few Long-tailed Tits were seen. We did see a Nuthatch but my photo doesn't do it justice as I was shooting into the Sun. A pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers were conspicuous by their red underparts.

Once out of the wood we walked across the vast expanse of lawn between the flats the wood. Soaring high above was a Common Buzzard. Against the blue sky it made for a pleasant sight. A couple of passers-by were quite interested in what we had seen and asked if we were looking for Waxwings. We were but so far had drawn a blank. I did point-out the Buzzard overhead and that got an "aha!" from the pair.

Walking all the way down the road for about 2 miles, didn't produce anything in the way of birds but after a quick stop at my place we continued on to Kirk Moor Plantation Wood. Here in the mid-afternoon Sun we got superb views of a Treecreeper, so good that I didn't even take photos! At the other end of the Wood by the Pub, high up the top of Silver Birch and Alders were a small flock of what we believe we Lesser Redpolls but on examining the photos, I am 90% sure that there are a couple of Linnets mixed in with them! A great day walking around our local patch and still plenty more to see!

January 2011 - Hatfield Moor

Saturday 15th: An overcast and very blustery day started with a stop on the road to Hatfield Moor, on the banks of the river Torne to join other Birders in looking for a Rough-legged Buzzard. Set up the scope and spent maybe 50 minutes scoping the farm fields and tree-line. In the scope saw got a good view of a Common Buzzard. Decided to come back later in the afternoon for another look.


Parking up at Boston car park, a first year Mute Swan stood forlornly at the fence and when Sandra went to feed it some bread, it was quickly joined by two Canada Geese and a Lesser Scaup (Aythya Duck). I say Lesser Scaup for want of another name. It seems that there is some discussion as to what the duck actually is, on the Hatfield Moor blog. But in the final analysis, it is likely to be an immature female Lesser Scaup.

The duck (whatever it is), seemed unconcerned with us and was more interested in the bread that Sandra was feeding the Swan. It was constantly on the move and it seemed that we were treated to the "Little 'n Large" show as the little duck ran around the much larger Swan!

Sandra wanted to visit the hide where we would be guaranteed to get a good sighting of various birds and we weren't to be disappointed! I have never seen so many Great Tits and Blue Tits gathered together in one group before! On and around the feeders, (note: when feeding birds fatballs, please remove the green plastic netting as they can easily get their feet tangled in this) there were at least 10 Great Tits with at least 9 Blue Tits! I suspect that nearby there were more! We even had a surprise visit by two Long-tailed Tits to the feeders. Reed Buntings, Chaffinches, a Robin and female Blackbird along with 2 Dunnocks picked at scraps that had fallen to the ground. Some good photos were captured from here as can be seen above and below.

We moved on towards what is named as The Prison Lakes. A short trek up a muddy trail to a couple of very large lakes. No waterfowl on these except for a solitary pair of Mallards. But we did get a good close view of a Kestrel as it glided at low-level above us. Three Bulfinches whistled overhead and perched for a few minutes in the bare branches of Alders, long enough for us to get stunning views of the rose-breasted male and the female. Wandering back to the car we came across a birder who was watching some Lesser Redpolls amongst the Silver Birch. We too studied them before they took to flight.

Back at Boston Park lake we made a check on the waterfowl. Plenty of Canada Geese, of which I counted 125 using my "counter-device",Coot; 140, Black-headed Gulls with some Tufted Duck, one male Wigeon (above) and some Pochard. A Good day out though very blustery at times but mildish!