A morning walk...

A perfect Tawny Owl lookout

After only catching 1 bird in 2 hours ringing this morning due to the strong wind I gave up and took Indie for a walk through our woods just to see what was about instead. Our woods have no public access near them and they are not disturbed very often so there is aways something interesting to see. As soon as I set foot in the wood I knew it would be an interesting walk as I had a 10 second stare off with a Tawny Owl from a regular roost hole.

I walked round for about 40 minutes and this is what I saw - 5x Brown Hares, a Grey Squirrell, 3x Roe Deer, Buzzard, Kestrel, Pheasants, 3x Red Legged Partridge, Robin, Dunnocks, 4x Treecreeper, Blue, Great, Coal, Long-tailed and Marsh Tits, 20+ Yellowhammers, 50+ Linnet, Skylarks, Great Spotted Woodpecker, 3 Herring Gulls, 100+ Pigeons, Jay, Magpie, Rooks and a Crow, at least that is what I can remember as I forgot my notebook.

Hawthorn - A Buffet for Thrushes

It was great to see Blackbirds, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Redwing and Fiedfare feeding on the Blackthorn and Hawthorn with are laden with berries at the moment. The areas of srcub surrounding the woodland are treated as hedgerows and ony cut ever 3/4 years to prevent encroachment on tracks and fields and this approach pays dividends with the amount of berries that are present.

It just goes to show that what is about if you keep you eyes and ears open. It was interesting to see how dry the woodland floor is and there is very little in the way of fungi growing at the moment. PJB