A flush of milder weather and some welcome sunshine greeted me and Dave at Morton Bagot this morning.
As December days go, this was a reasonably good one for birding. The hedgerows still have sufficient berries to encourage at least 40 Redwings and a dozen or so Fieldfares and Blackbirds to remain to enjoy the feast. We also counted five Stonechats, which is an apparent increase on the last few visits.
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| Stonechat |
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| Robin |
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| Fieldfare |
One group of birds which are not suited to the generating woodland at Morton Bagot in winter are the finches and buntings. Actually it should be OK for Lesser Redpolls, but we only heard one. Also in single figures were Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Siskins, Goldfinches, Linnets, and Reed Buntings, a far cry from the site's more agricultural past when there could be thousands of finches present.
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| A lone Reed Bunting |
We later met Tony who was putting out seed feeders to boost his catch when he starts ringing later this week. That should increase the finch population for a while.
We reached the flash field, which initially appeared pretty birdless. About five Teal skulked on the furthest flash. Our luck improved when a flock of 70 to 80 Lapwings appeared overhead, and shortly afterwards a Red Kite flapped over, pursued by a few angry corvids.
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| Lapwings |
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| Red Kite |
I saw a Red Kite on Thursday over Winyates on my way back from the chemist, so this could be the same one. Although they are rapidly losing their rarity status, any day that contains a sighting of a Kite is a good day.
I nearly forgot. We also saw an adult Peregrine on one of the pylons.
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