karen's country calendar

Just a quick post on this subject as weather very overcast and not suitable for photographs, I wasnt sure whether I would even see any birds! However I was pleasantly surprised and noted straightaway a woodpigeon and three greenfinches in an overhanging tree which later flew down into the garden and enjoyed their breakfast!   It wasnt long before I saw a robin hopping along beneath the feeders and a couple of bluetits feeding from the sunflower hearts.  Three great tits were seen on another feeder hanging from the tree and kept flitting to and from the nearby bushes to take sunflower hearts. A male chaffinch put in an appearance on the back fence and later was joined by another and a couple of females on the ground beneath the feeders.   Just before the hour was up a jackdaw was seen  and a male blackbird followed by a female also appeared. So although not a great total it was worth submitting - 8 species and 17 birds counted. No sign of any goldfinches, dunnocks, long tailed tits

With my sister planning to visit for a couple of days as is becoming a new year custom we decided to make visits to both Welney and Rutland to see how many birds we could start the year's list with. Although only the main hide was open at Welney we were able to see a number of species including tree sparrow and whooper swans which I dont often see elsewehere. The water level was the highest I had seen it which meant the warden had to wade along in front of the hide rather than walk on the shingle when he did his 1230 swan feed although this was rather more a duck feed with the dozen or so swans far outnumbered by large numbers of pochard and mallard together with a few tufted ducks. We took advantage of the free 'hare walk' around Lady Fen which produced sightings of half a dozen hares, some roe deer and the highlight for me - a couple of short eared owls.   We learnt quite a bit about the habits of hares to make 'forms' in the tussocks of grass with the grass