Right from the off there were more signs of spring on Billinge Hill today as the song of skylark filled the air around the paddocks.
Near to the landfill several pairs of long-tailed tits were present around the gorse bushes and one pair was observed collecting moss for an out of site nest in the centre of a large gorse bush.
Also over the tip several meadow pipits were singing whilst they dropped from lofty hovers.
A few pairs of yellowhammers were scattered throughout but the later breeding linnets were notable in their absence.
The tree sparrows around Beacon farm were as obvious as ever and one individual was doing a fair impression of a Spanish sparrow with a black-looking chest and belly, an odd-looking individual indeed.
On the other side of Crank Road near the pine copse a lonely raven came kronking into view perched a while a then headed further north. Here also a few goldcrests were calling but a pleasant sound from beyond the trees was drowning them out ...... the combined chattering/sub-song of equal portions of 200+ starling and redwing as they nervously fed in the sheep fields.
Heading toward promised land farm there were 20 pied wagtails feeding alongside a few meadow pipits but alas no "white" wagtails.
Another field held 14 lapwing lighting up the morning with their pee-wit, pee-wit, pee-woooo display. One pair even seemed to be engaged in some nest-scraping ... hope they are successful, the demise of these green plovers in a modern tragedy. Its no coincidence that this stubble field was fully occupied whilst the neighboring deserts of green were devoid of almost any life.
I was distracted from these thoughts by a distinctive chattering call which took a while to nail down and then after a minute I located a single fieldfare a top a lofty perch, solemnly calling for its kin. It was out of luck though and it headed north to find another perch.
A check of a few other fields and patches of scrub didn't however produce any wheatear nor chiffchaff but it wont be long now. The call of a sparrowhawk around Houghwood almost got me thinking about a green woodpecker as the habitat looks right.
I finished up checking out the mini-wildfowl collection at Brownlow Farm, those white mandarin are very striking and if those ruddy shelduck were just a few hunded metres further afield they would be the hot topic amongst the local birdwatching community!
Happy Birding
Paul B
Nice descriptions! Are goldcrests often seen near hangmans wood (the pine wood?)?There was one in a rose bush in our back garden last week fleetingly!
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew, I find goldcrests fairly common just overlooked, they are always present in Hangman's wood and occaisionally in my garden too :)
ReplyDeletePaul B