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| This is my 'Buzzard tree', quite a few times climbing over the brow of the hill, if I climb slow enough I see a Buzzard sitting in the branches, home, Yorkshire. |
At home in yorkshire this weekend for my bro's bday earlier in the week.
Hit on a great weeknd weather wise, sun shining, clear blue skies and cold, but not too cold.
Woke early this morning and headed down the fields knowing the rest of the house would sleep another couple of hours.
2 Redkites and a Buzzard were the first birds I saw, always wows me how regularly and easily I see them here.
I walked down the fields and stopped to look down some berry laden trees for winter visitors.
As I stood there, 2 tiny little Wrens popped their heads out of a gorse bush. One of them hopped up onto a farm gate where I was standing, merely 30cm away. I froze and it hopped towards me rather than freaking out and hopping away. I stayed still and got to watch this smaller than a mouse bird, tilt it's teeny tiny head to the side, supercilium catching in the sun, eye me up, eye the gorse bush up, then unimpressed, hop away.
It is said that some of the winter visitors can be very tame around humans because they may never have seen us before, but some of our resident birds can be equally nonplussed by us - and when that happens it's always magic.
Further down, near the River Wharfe, a flock of Starlings were feeding on the ground, in trees next to them were some Fieldfares, about 25 of them, each feeding on berries spread across the branches of about 4 Hawthorn trees, nice to see them in Yorkshire.
In the distance I heard a Curlew calling in flight across some farmer's fields and overhead were a couple more Redkites silently circling the skies.
I was in the middle of some trees, keeping still and looking out, when a flock of Longtailed tits flew in and started their upside down feeding, hanging from branches right next to my head. As always, a Treecreeper in the same group of trees soon showed itself, again very close.
A lot of up close and personal birds this morning.
In the fields with the sheep, 50 or so black headed gulls and 10 herring gulls prodded the grass for worms.
I saw a far off flock of possible waders, but couldn't make out what they were, they deffo weren't Lapwings, or Plovers, and despite Niall's great talk on wader id on Tuesday, I couldn't figure out what they were from the brief, far off glimpse.
I did manage to id a solitary bird I fixed on for a while in a hawthorn tree, super clear supercilium and a red patch under its wing made it the one Redwing of the morning walk, which ended up being a great morning walk.
You never regret a walk.
