Abbey Meadows

Abbey Meadows

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Twitch at the tip


I arrived at the tip this morning about 0930ish and Alan G and ipin were already watching the Arctic redpoll (see pics on dusty bins, Alan Tilmouth blog). It had moved out of sight but a few minutes later I had a brief view through the Alders on the opposite side with a few Goldfinches. A flock of 30 redpolls flew in...all of them Mealies. There was also some fine looking Lesser Redpolls as well. In the NW corner there was a flock of over 100 Goldfinches. The flocks were more fragmented today but the bright bird remained elusive for the rest of the morning. I've seen a white bird here on a couple of visits (see hints on previous posts) but have not been able to pin it down. Well done to Alan. Other sightings were a Heron feeding on voles, a Buzzard hovering into the wind and a Weasel. On my way in I walked Bennyboy through the Beech wood at the entrance and flushed 3 Woodcock, one of them got stuck in the wire fence but managed to squeeze through. there was also a dead one which had been well plucked.

2 comments:

Stewart said...

Thats a phrase I bet you never thought you would hear - Twitch at the tip! Can you imagine that. No one other than maybe 6 folk knows where it is!

abbey meadows said...

No sign of it today but it will be around somewhere. People will always find a site if a good bird turns up! We've had a few notable sightings over the years in this area as well as plants and butterflies. I'm in the process of logging all things natural in the Stobswood area within the boundaries we used in the year list race a few years ago.