The frosty weather continues, and my walk was quite short this morning at the Sculcoates patch. As I got to the drain, two Redwing and a Woodcock flew over, a new species for the patch and a very good start for the visit. I was surprised to see that the drain had iced over, not completely, but mostly. This is the first time I've seen it like this. I meet David L. and he tells me that he's seen a Woodcock three times this week at the cemetery, so I head that way. I visit both cemeteries but fail to flush any. Bullfinches and Greenfiches around, the thick frost making the paths pleasantly crunchy.
Frozen drain.
As I walk the paths of the southern cemetery, two Lapwings fly over, another patch tick. The frozen wetlands have pushed them to look for soft ground to feed. As I walk by the playing fields, I find three Lapwing, I find it hard to believe but they have found somewhere to feed in this very urban location. The three Lapwing feed with gulls, Woodpigeons and Starlings on the grass, with their stop start movement in search for worms. I watch them for a while from the fence, and then head back home.
2 comments:
Someone reported a Woodcock in Kensington Gardens today, a most unusual bird here. I didn't see it myself. It looks as if they've been push out of their usual places by the cold spell.
These cold icy conditions means I regularly will see a flying Woodcock at Hull, we're not that far from the east coast, where they first arrive from the continent and Hull has more wooded areas than the surrounding countryside in the form of parks and cemeteries. Now, seeing one on the ground is an altogether different matter, I would need some thermal image binoculars to spot it before it breaks cover!
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