A New Year.....

 A Happy (if slightly belated!) New Year!

As usual I was up and out for a walk around town early on the 1st, the highlights being a pair of Goldcrest, 3 Mistle Thrush chasing each other and a single Redwing in the supermarket car park! Redwings have been missing this winter so far, usually there are at least a dozen around the park from early November right through to Feb/March but so far i've only seen a couple of flocks flying over. 

Mistle Thrush

Goldcrest

Distant Redwing

We spent our bank holiday morning at St Aidan's, it was lovely and sunny but very cold! It's always nice to add birds to a new year list, it's like seeing them new all over again! Some highlights were a low flying Red Kite, a diving Black-necked Grebe and lots of very flighty Lapwings. 

Gadwall

Lapwings

BNG

As we walked around this partial rainbow was in the distance until we were leaving when we watched it fill the sky, i've not seen that happen before

In the garden my husband found lots of fungi hidden amongst the ivy on our Laburnum trunk, I think it's perhaps Oyster mushrooms?

The garden has been packed with birds, when i've been at home it's non stop around the feeders all day long and it's a joy to watch. Now i'm back to work of course I barely see the garden in daylight during the week but I do get to see some lovely sunrises on my commute!

Spot the goats!

On first day back to work this week I had a walk in Churwell woods beforehand and saw a record number of Chaffinch by the feeders - at least a dozen. Elsewhere a Kestrel has taken to hunting a field on a regular basis now dog walkers have been stopped from using it. 

After work the same day after some information from local birders (thanks again!) I went back to the woods at duskish (it was quite dark) to see a brilliant patch tick in the form of a Barn Owl which has been seen around for some time. I thought we might have missed it as I was delayed leaving work a little but luckily our walk through the mud in the dark was worth it as we saw it quartering the fields for some time before flying through the woods. We saw it perched in a tree - a perfect Owl silhouhette - as we were leaving too! A great start to the year!

A Catch Up

It's been a while so this is a bit of a hodge podge of things from the past couple of months. Life has been busy and eventful so my mind hasn't been on blogging and i've just realised I hadn't posted since August. 

I had a trip to Blacktoft Sands at the beginning of November, it's been a while since we've been and the highlight was the long staying White-tailed Lapwing that was a lifer for me. It was a miserable day and we spent most of the time hiding from the rain in the various hides - no big hardship!

White-tailed Lapwing

Grey Heron

Dunlin

We've been to the woods often before work, the weather has been hit and miss but it's worth it to start the day off well.

Kestrel 

Woodpigeons

We had our first frost (and snow) recently and the woods looked beautiful.

A Heron landed on the house across from ours early one morning and stopped a while, it's always odd to see such a large bird on a roof.

In the garden we've had young Hedgehogs, young Coal Tits, Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits amongst others. It does mean we've seen more of the Sparrowhawk as there have been so many birds around. Late summer early autumn meant young Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers passing through the garden almost daily, often with the Tit flocks.

Young Woodpigeon

Sparrowhawk

Chiffchaff

Long-tailed Tits

We had an exciting garden first too with a Jay making a couple of appearances, I've barely seen them at all around town the past couple of years so to get one in the garden was brilliant. 

Our first snow of winter came at the end of November and of course I can't resist taking as many photos of it as possible, it can make nearly anything look pretty and we don't get it as often these days so we need to make the most of it.

Hopefuly it won't be as long until the next post.