Eldernell, Welney and Lynford birding

- February 11, 2023

When my sister comes up to stay we usually spend a day out birding together looking for birds she doesnt see in her area and adding to my list as I dont get out birding much on my own.

Yesterday was no exception and we decided to do a round trip of three reserves with different habitats starting with Eldernell by the Nene Washes where our aim was to see some owls. There were a few other birders there also looking and once we had identified the area for the tawny sighting, my sister managed to spot it sitting in it usual hole deep in the woods. We heard that the long eared owl normally seen there, was not in its usual place in the hedge so I wondered along looking to see if it was anywhere else. Suddenly my sister called out, "there's an owl" as something shot out from near me and flew across a field to a distant bramble bush. We trained our binoculars on the brambles and could just make out the head of a short eared owl. Another tick. Sadly we didnt see the long eared owl but did see a few meadow pipits.

Next stop was Welney Wetlands centre where we first enjoyed lunch in the cafe overlooking the bird feeders where there were dozens of sparrows, most house sparrows but some tree sparrows amongst them - another tick.

Once we got to the heated observatory, we saw the ducks had just been fed and there were numerous pochard, mallards,wigeon etc just in front of the windows. With more ducks and waders visible further away I was able to tick off shelduck, teal, pintail and gadwall together with avocet, black tailed godwit and lapwing.

Onwards to Lynford Arboretum looking for crossbills and hawfinches. We noticed someone looking intently through his camera over a fence and found he was watching a bird feeding area where there were lots of chaffinches, yellow hammers, and other small birds. My sister saw a brambling amongst them but I didnt see it. We waited a while to see if it returned but meanwhile I spotted a nuthatch and coal tit near the feeders - two more ticks.

We decided to leave this area and have another look on our way back.We continued along the path and over a bridge to where we found some people looking through telescopes at some hornbeam trees in a field . They told us they had seen just one hawfinch which had since flown off but there was one mistle thrush and lots of redwings in the field so I was able to tick those off.

Having watched for a while we turned round and near the bridge we noticed some movement in the alder trees which were covered in pink catkins. A flock of siskins were busy feeding and if the sun had been shining would have made a lovely picture with the yellow and black markings against the pink. We watched them for a while - another tick for me. There was also a feeding station in this area which was visited briefly by a marsh tit.

Stopping off again at the feeding area we couldnt see anything for a few minutes then the flock of finches came down again and there was a feeding frenzy with all the birds enjoying a feast of the food that was left out for them. This time, there were numerous bramblings amongst them so another bird for my years list.

Including a great white egret which we had passed earlier in the day, this made 19 new sightings for this year so I was pleased with that giving me a total of 65.