Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Rambling for Bramblings

A late start and a trip to Mill Bank in search of Bramblings started with not a lot other than the usual Jackdaws and Magpies and around 50 Woodpigeon and 8 Jays. Then a pair of Treecreepers in a garden followed by a pair of Nuthatch in another garden with a large flock of Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit added to the list, with a Grey Wagtail, a pair of Coal Tits, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Collared Dove, plenty of Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Chaffinch coming next. Around 20 Redwings went over and, eventually, as my knees began to give way and the lighting slipped away under gloomy skies, I finally saw the Bramblings zipping up and down the valley in the tree tops.
They alighted in a Beech stand on the other side of the valley...........hadn't i just come from there?.....so back down the hill and up the next untill I reached the trees. A few had been feeding on the mast below the trees but went up into the canopy as I approached. Then several more revealed themselves...20.......30.....50......?????? Then they were on the move again, and frustratingly, I watched around 80 fly off South-west. Although around 20 or so stayed put, the lighting was too poor for filming. Hopefully, we might get some better lighting conditions over the next few days for a another chance. Fingers crossed.

2 comments:

Steve Cummings said...

Almost forgot....had a Cormorant flying over as well.....heading North.

Howard said...

You had a good haul of the usual suspects then Steve but you missed out on the Dippers and the Goldcrest

Had a singing Wood Warbler down there this year as well.

I noticed a large influx of Woodpigeon over the weekend down there as well. Will have to see what happens to the Jackdaws now the mill has been demolished as it was a regular nesting site for them.