Sunday 20 January 2013

Brambling - a first

I had work to catch up today so decided to try and do this on the laptop and keep an eye on the birds on the feeders. It ended up watching the birds on the feeders and occasionally on the laptop. Many of the usual birds on the feeders although there seemed to be more then usual, the Greenfinches of which I normally have 2 at a time increased to 5 and stayed all day, plenty of increased numbers in Blue Tits, Great Tits, House Sparrows and Chaffinches. I was hoping for something unusual or new for the year to come to the feeders with all of the snow and cold and I didn't have long to wait with a solitary Redwing dropping in. Shortly after when I went up the garden to check on the chickens a calling Lapwing flew over seemingly lost in the snow. Over the past few years during the winter I am always looking to the bird table and garden hoping to see a Brambling, something I have never had in my garden. At around lunch time I saw some birds fly up into the Oak tree next door and on inspection they were Greenfinches and Chaffinchs. As I was watching them I saw one at the back drop down through the tree's and I had a couple of brief glimpses and thought, that's not a Chaffinch. A few more hops in the tree and then down on to bird table where I had spread some seed and yes, a Male Brambling. Unfortunately it didn't hang around for long but over the next few hours it put in another 3 brief visits. Altogether I had 19 species throughout the day including a unsuccessful attempt at getting lunch by a Sparrowhawk. Noticeable absence today was from Great Spot and Green Woodpecker, Jay's and Magpies which up until this weekend had been daily visitors, maybe they stayed in the woods and don't like the snow.

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