Waxwing. Brian Rafferty.
Well the title and the photographs for today's post was never easier 'cos I ain't seen none yet and BR - who has - took some pictures with a difference in that they show the Waxwing with wings spread to give us some of the finer details of the birds spectacular plumage like....
Waxwing. Brian Rafferty
....these two do. Great stuff as always Brian with my thanks.
As for me, well I went off on a 'short shift' to check if anything was happening at Conder Green, Glasson Dock and Cockersands that I didn't know about only to discover nothing was, but....it's gotta be done!
Conder Pool appears to be down to 6 Little Grebe at the moment, with 2 Wigeon and 3 Tufted Duck amounting to a quiet scene which the Kingfisher illuminated by putting in an appearance. On the circuit I found a Rock Pipit and wondered how many may have been lurking on the marsh along with the Snipe waiting to be put up by a 10mtr tide, 2 Snipe were the only waders of any note, and a Reed Bunting seen. The best bird here was the Grey Wagtail I found which quiet amazingly is my first here since 28 January 2008 twenty one months ago.
At Glasson Dock I noted c.650 Golden Plover none of which resembled an American Golden Plover the 'possible' of which was reported yesterday, c.5,000 Knot and 250 Bar-tailed Godwit were also of note.
At Cockersands I decided to take a close look at the 'finches' here again and got some conclusive evidence that there are probably up to 200 birds in the area as the ratio today was c.80 Greenfinch, 10 Linnet, and 6 Chaffinch, the Greenfich/Linnet ratio being round about the opposite on Thursday last. Three Reed Bunting and a Grey Plover were the only other birds noted as by now I was once again out of time....and here's me thinking the days of running out of time were behind me!
For the past few days I've been watching a Coal Tit from our kitchen window, this bird is taking seeds from a feeder and on Saturday morning whilst I was in and out of the room a few times I estimated it visited the feeder up to 70 times in thirty minutes and took them off obviously to bury/store them somewhere and flying off in three different directions to do so. Whilst I'm not suggesting this bird spends the whole day doing this kind of 'work' as it blatantly isn't and couldn't, but the bird and this behaviour fascinates me.
Ive watched a Marsh Tit do the same in my garden Pete. The one I watch eats a few sunflower hearts first, then spends 15 mins stashing more. It's the same bird, as there is just one on my patch.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this Warren.
ReplyDeleteJust as interesting is the Marsh Tit in your garden. No more than a localised resident breeder in my area, and definitely not many people can claim one in their garden I assure you Warren.