Goldcrests and Lapwings

For reasons that I may explain in a latter posting I was up all night last night. That meant that I was very happy to stretch my legs and get out for a walk early this morning. I needed the fresh air and the sanity of the woods.

Almost straight away I saw a Barn Owl as it flew across the track. I did stop to see if I could see where it went but I lost sight of it. I think it was perched in a tree bordering one of the fields but, I just could not find it. However that period of waiting and searching meant that as I went back on my chosen path, I spotted a couple of Goldcrests. The smallest bird in Britain it migrates from Scandinavia and is always a treat to see. As I walked further into the woods I saw more of them, and as I latter discovered via the Autumnwatch programme they came over in vast numbers over this weekend.

When I got back home I saw something that resolved a mystery for me. In my back yard, I have just allowed nature to take over. Even though it is just a concrete desert, by not sweeping up spilt soil from pots and leaving soil filled empty pots out there, a veritable host of wild plants (weeds) have established themselves. Further, I have just allowed the moss to grow on the steps into the yard, while still keeping a safe route to my back gate. Well about a week ago something started pulling off the moss. I guessed a bird trying to get at the insects, and I did think it might be the blackbird that I have that returns regularly. I know its the same one as he has white patches on his head. There are several with different white patches in their feathering around, a local genetic variation that make identifying individuals easy. Anyway I saw the bird that's doing it and its a Redwing another winter migrant and the first I have seen this year.

Later on in the day I had to go into Consett, on the way back I spotted a large flock of Lapwing in one of the fields. By large I am talking forty or fifty birds, the most that I have seen in one place for many years. In fact I checked by old note books and I was fourteen when I last saw that many. I don't know if this is another example of serendipity, but one of the people whose Web Log I read was posting on Lapwings today and their decline. But even when I was child they were in decline then and the major reason for this is the changes in agricultural practices. But that could be a whole other posting, I was just thrilled to see them.

Then if that was not enough to make this a good day, as I went out to bolt the back gate, the window cleaner had been today, I saw one of the Red Kites gliding very low, by low under the telephone wires up my back lane. When you see them that close you realise how wide their wing span is. It was low enough to see a chicken wing or chicken leg (cooked and coated, KFC?) in its talons.

As you can guess I thought today a good day.