This morning was cold, very cold. Dave joined me for our usual stumble around Morton Bagot, and with everywhere frozen solid expectations were not high.
Nevertheless the Netherstead access road brought us a Marsh Tit as a useful, if not unexpected, addition to the year list. The main feature of the day was the hoar frost clinging to every branch. We saw quite a few Bullfinches but they were frustratingly flighty, and the only shots I got were too distant, and invariably of females. We reckoned there were at least nine individuals on site.
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| Frost |
The flashes were birdless apart from a party of 22 Lapwings flying over (which I missed), and a few Geese on the distant fields. However, we did discover a flock of 47 Siskins in the Alders along the brook. This equals the second-highest count ever for Morton Bagot. Some of them can be seen below:
We noticed that the dead Kittiwake was now represented by a few white feathers (a Fox no doubt found his luck was in), and added a Stonechat and 23 Linnets in the ridge field.
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| The ridge field |
We also noticed that more trees had been planted in the field where the Ring Ouzels had paused on passage last spring, also a favoured area for passage Wheatears.
The march of HOEF progress I guess.
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