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Sunday 23 January 2011

Kronk !

It was down to Gayhurst Quarry again this morning as I'm determined to find some wild geese amongst our enormous  Greylag/Canada throng.

 Arriving at Motorway Pit all was strangely quiet, as apart from a single Great-crested Grebe and a few Black-headed Gulls there wasn't a bird to be seen. I couldn't see or hear any shooters, but I guess they had been here the day before.
 Spinney Pit held a few Tufted Ducks, Coots and Mallards, but it seemed everything had re-located to Motorway Pit.
 All the Swans, 111 Mutes and the lone Whooper, at least 300 Greylags, 100 Canadas, 300 Wigeon, 200 Mallard and 3 Great-crested Grebe, but all as jittery as anything.
 A very large Corvid flock hung around and an obvious influx of Common Gulls hung around the fields with a few hundred Fieldfares.

I walked around the marshy stream area on my way up to Quarryhall as I was hoping to find a Snipe or even Jack Snipe as strangely enough I still haven't seen either this year - they seemed to vanish in the cold snap and so far haven't returned.
As I approached Quarryhall I could hear quite a few Tree Sparrows in the Maize strip, but they never did come out. Around 30 Yellowhammers along with a few Reed Buntings were also around.
A coarse 'Kronking' sound then had me looking up, - Raven !! and sure enough one and then another flew steadily over northwards. Only my second and third ever birds here.
 The Red-legged Partridge cage today contained 6 birds, I'm now thinking they must be able to get in and out themselves, although I'm not really sure how.

 A few signs of spring today with a pair of Great-spotted Woodpeckers chasing each other around a tree and a male Chaffinch in full song.

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