Local Birding

I popped to Marsh Lane NR for an hour yesterday afternoon. It was very cold but good to get out for a walk and some solitude and watch some wildlife. Its probably the last chance before Christmas to recharge my batteries :)

I saw a Buzzard as I drove along the Old Road and there were still quite a few Redwings about - although nowhere near the numbers seen previously. The various feeding stations on the reserve were attracting Blue and Great Tits, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, House Sparrows, Robins, Chaffinches and Reed Buntings.

The Mute Swan pair had managed to escape the Black Swan and were on their own on a different pool.

This is a rubbish photo with all the reeds in the way but I love the way the swans are mirroring each other's movements :)

And here's the Black Swan - in its usual place on Railway Pool keeping the Black-headed Gulls company this time.

Teal (heavily cropped)

Gadwall - sorry the photos aren't very good the light was awful

Gorse in flower. This species flowers most of the year hence the saying "When Gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of fashion" - which was discussed recently on Dartmoor Ramblings blog.

I was really pleased to get fairly close views of a Water Rail from Oak Hide - unfortunately the sound of the camera shutter sent it scuttling fairly quickly back into the reeds. But it was a new bird "tick" for the year and a new species for the reserve.

I saw 31 species altogether which was quite good for an hour's walk and added Pheasant, Water Rail and House Sparrow to the list of birds seen at the reserve which I am keeping. The list now stands at 46.





To change the subject completely we've finally got round to putting up the Christmas Tree. I do have a much smaller, real one which lives outside in a pot on the patio all year and I only bring it in a few days before Christmas as it doesn't seem keen on the central heating and I would be very sad if I lost it as we bought it as a little tree about 6 inches high when D was a baby.

Here just for CT is a photo of the original fairy looking rather lopsided at the top of the tree!!! Again I bought this for the tree when D was a baby for his first Christmas.

It appears it no longer has a competitor for pride of place at the top of the tree as E's very modern, large fairy appears to have disappeared! Last Christmas B started decluttering in earnest by announcing that we could only keep the Christmas decorations that would fit in one large storage box and I fear E's fairy was one of the casualties and found its way to a charity shop as she declared she wasn't particularly bothered about keeping it. I suspect it may turn up somewhere hidden at the back of a cupboard as I have a feeling I didn't want to throw it away for sentimental reasons and usually when this happens I retrieve items from the bin bag when no-one's looking :)!!!