A gloomy day with a light, but cold breeze, I catch a bus to Kignswood. I potter around the car park, where a male Pied Wagtail sings and feeds. I walk towards Midmeredales. The path is very muddy and flooded and at some point by a ditch, the water is too deep for wellies, so I have to turn round and walk along Kesteven Way, popping into the woods by the entrances. A flock of 40+ Siskins feeds on Alders by the temporary pond, while Goldfinches nearby are on the Teasels and Burdocks. It is being an irruption year for Siskins, they are everywhere and I find some in every outing, they favour both Italian Alder, widely planted along avenues in the city, and Common Alder in more seminatural scrub.
The woodland is waterlogged or flooded. It was planted in the turn of the Millennium, I participated in a planting session around December 2008, where there were few trees.
Running, singing and feeding Pied Wagtail.
A dog walker tells me of a sighting of a Mink hunting a rabbit before Asda was built and how many nights, as he checks his front garden, a Barn Owl flies by, and turns its head to look at him as if saying good night.
A lone Goosander at Noddle Hill fishing pond.
I walk up the Foredyke Stream. A mixed flock of gulls with some Lesser Black-backed Gulls are in the floods, but no Lapwings today. A Marsh Harried flies over quite low and I lose it quickly. I walk around the pumping station, the area has been flooded, but is now passable. At the top feeders, no evidence of Tree Sparrows or Yellowhammers, but I flush a Kingfisher at the Holderness Drain. I have my lunch by the pond feeders. Great Tits, Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Long Tailed Tits and a Robin keep me company. As I leave, I hear and see some Siskins on the Alders by the pond. They are indeed everywhere!
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