Friday 1 January 2016

Marsh Tit and Golden Plovers

The last day of the year and the temperatures are still holding up although we've had the first rain for a while.
Yesterday's ride over the plains was a productive one; I'd not long left the house when I heard the distinctive nasal call of a marsh tit, a bird which I've not seen for some months and he showed himself well as he fed on hazel catkins.
On the plains themselves was a flock of about forty lapwings which rose from a field and then resettled but a much larger group of golden plovers was more purposely bent on moving elsewhere.
I mentioned a few of the regular species which were missing on my last foray but they all showed up today. In fact there were another nine of them (including a few cranes) to add to the previous tally of thirty seven. Forty six is not a bad showing for the last few days of 2015.