Wernforthy

As you may have guessed from the title, I like me a little Spooner-ish swonsonant citching now and again..  ;D


Having done buggere alle yesterday - at least in the sense of getting out and doing something approaching birding, anyway - today would have to be another matter.


For the first time in the year and far too long, the Folks were up for a day on't Moor [the LBD is always up for t' Moor, of course..] and nothing was getting in the way. Certainly not roads covered in ice. As it happened, the roads were covered in water of the unfrozen type, but try telling that to some people; there is sensible caution and there is driving li- [[RANT REMOVED]]

Ahem.


Finally arriving, we went a' wandering among the trees in the glorious sunshine. And it really was glorious  :)  It was also pretty quiet - among the conifers we met only one group of Goldcrests and two of tits - WTF..?!? - this despite covering quite a proportion of the area. Ok, we may have been unlucky - it's a big place and mobile bands are easy to miss, after all - but it felt quiet, too. Tilda Swindog failed to find us a Woodcock [I guess word's got around; "Don't roost within 10' of the tracks or this horrible little black dog will find you!"], though she did have lots of fun barking at sheep, ponies, and where deer had been earlier...

In a sheltered spot, basking in the sunshine we found, yes, a Red Admiral. A pretty much unblemished one, too. First flutterby of the year.

:)

There were more birds close to the reservoir, including flyover Fieldfare and a group of lost [there's no cones] Crossbills. On the water, a lone Canada Goose [could be a genuine vagrant! ;D ] swam about looking lost, with a group of 15 Teal very mobile, and lone Little Grebe and Cormorant [the latter in breeding finery, but too far off to get race]. The gulls started building after the big boss shower - which kicked in less than 5 minutes after we got to the Hide [Oh, such beautiful timing!] - ended. They were on 70+ Herring and 6 Common when we left. The shower left this;

LBN locates Little Grebe

Pretty pretty

Twas a nice walk indeed and much overdue. Hopefully there will be less of a time gap until our next meander.