Around the Patch

Things are a little quiet around the patch at the moment, i've only managed to add a couple of birds to the list.

The garden has been quite deserted during the day but one of the birds I added to the list was a Sparrowhawk flying over the house so that may be partly to blame. There is often one around but it's the first time i've seen it since last year. The birds are about mostly early morning and late afternoon but there always seems to be Starlings flitting from tree to tree.

There are a lot of Sparrows roosting in the trees behind the gardens and they hop up just after the sun rises most mornings.

I had to trim back the Buddleia finally due to the winds this week, a shame as the birds loved to sit in it in the back garden. Luckily I didn't have to take too much off the one by the front window, it proves popular with the Sparrows and it's great for those visiting the window feeder.

We have big plans for the garden this year to make it more wildlife friendly and i'm looking forward to starting (well instructing my husband as my back won't be up to any digging and such for a while yet!).

A walk in the park a few days ago produced plenty of birds and birdsong, which is increasing by the day. There are still quite a few Redwings about still and as I was scanning them to make sure I wasn't missing any Fieldfare (I wasn't) a lady stopped to ask what I was looking at. This rarely happens and it was nice to chat and be able to point out a few birds.

I'm back at work part time for now and i'm managing to walk through one of the local parks on the way there most mornings. It's a good way to start the day!

Churwell Urban Woodlands

Making the most of the good weather we took a walk around the woodlands including going over (and under) the motorway to make it a round trip and a good couple of hours walking even if we did end up doubling back on ourselves!

A frog was in the pond area and we saw a rat by the edge of it.

Unfortunately a shadow sat right across the frog which somehow I didn't notice at the time!

There was plenty of birds about, Woodpigeon, Dunnock, Sparrows, Blackbirds, Chaffinch, Great/Blue/LT Tits, Wren, Goldcrest, Song Thrush, Goldfinch, Starlings, Magpie - we saw a couple building a nest, Robins and overhead 7 Pink Footed Geese, Gulls and a Kestrel (unfortunately the latter 3 were just off the patch so I couldn't add anything to my list for that!).

My daughter pointed out that Robins look like they've dipped themselves into a bowl of tomato soup!

A lovely moment spotting this squirrel taking a drink.

Throughout the walk we spotted quite a bit of fungus, some lovely ones too. 

Lots of signs of spring around too, there were Snowdrops all over.

It's a joy to have somewhere like this to walk around so close to home and it's really well looked after by the volunteers, not a bit of litter in sight, which is a rare thing!  

This is the view from walk at the other side of the M621, which for the most part you don't notice and you can almost forget that you're this close to Leeds.

Farnley Balancing Reservoir

I've been past here on the ring road so many times over the years and never stopped but I have done a couple of times recently, just out of curiosity as there are always a lot of birds on the water.

The water is quite low at the moment and unfortunately it is not in the greatest of shape, the things that have been dumped in here, the mind boggles as to why people would do so?! It's also awash with bread packets and soggy bread and even a slice of toast was stuck in a tree!

Despite that the reservoir is teeming with birds -

Black Headed Gull
Canada Geese
Coot
Farmyard Ducks
Grey Heron
Greylag Geese
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-Backed Gull
Mallard
Moorhen
Mute Swan
Teal
Tufted Ducks

This Swan had some pink on it's wing feathers, it looked a little like blood, you can't really tell from the photo but I couldn't see any injuries. There was also a Mallard with a damaged wing.

I haven't walked around to the other side so of course there could be plenty I missed.

The banking near where you can park on Butt Lane often has Geese and Gulls on it and many pigeons too.

This one I think is a hybrid?

After a little bit of digging online I found out the reservoir was built in 1973 to help prevent flooding in the area, Farnley Beck runs in (and out) of it. It looks like it had a tidy up back in 2002 but I can't find anything since.

It's definitely a place i'll be stopping at more often, maybe I can figure out who to contact about cleaning it up - though i'm not holding my breath on that one!

Rodley Nature Reserve

Making the most of my last days off work we headed to Rodley on Wednesday. Despite the fog and rain we were there early doors. The lagoon was a little hazy but not enough we couldn't see anything.

There were plenty of birds to see including 9 Goldeneye, Tufted Ducks, a Little Grebe, Canada/Greylag Geese. The Geese kept lifting off in noisy flocks and disappearing overhead. By the time we left there was only a handful out on the water.

Along the Willow Path we saw Bullfinch, Dunnock, Blue/Great Tits, Song Thrush, Blackbird and Robin. By the field a flock of Linnets were flitting about.

On the Duck marsh were a large flock of Black Headed Gulls with a few Common dotted about. I saw a BH Gull flying past which had a fully black head, a bit unusual in winter?

We counted 9 Herons around the waters edge, plus a number of Teal and Tufted ducks too. A Canada Goose stood watching us expectantly, maybe one used to being fed in a public park somewhere?

A Jay flew off in the distance, the trees were full of Woodpigeons and the banks were covered in pigeons. The Grassland was quiet, mostly it was more BH Gulls and a few Moorhen. The riverside walk produced a Goosander flying along it. We watched a Goldcrest in the trees across the water and a lady told us there was one nearby in the brambles but that one stayed out of sight for us.

After stopping for a cup of tea to warm up a little we walked up to the managers garden. It was quiet there, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Reed Bunting mostly. The pumping station was busy with more BH Gulls and a Grey Wagtail was flying about. A Pied Wagtail was in the field by the manure pile and a Crow was eating what looked like a rat.

Back at the car park one of the trees had a small flock of Redwing and Fieldfare. A nice end to the morning.

Garden Watch

I had time on Sunday to do my hour for the garden bird watch for the RSPB. It was not the greatest of days with the birds doing their usual disappearing trick. I ended up with just 7 species

2 Blue Tits

1 Robin

1 Wren

2 House Sparrows

1 Goldcrest

2 Great Tit

1 Blackbird

Now i've noticed whilst being off work and having the time to watch the garden a lot more there is no consistency to the birds visits. A couple of years back you could almost set your watch by the regularity of the majority of the birds being in the garden - early morning, lunchtime, late afternoon. These days the birds pop in and out all day long and certainly not in the numbers they used to. Of course there are moments when the Starling flock in in large numbers and the Goldfinch charm descend but for the most it's usually 2 or 3 birds of each species.

During the full day on Sunday we also had Goldfinch, Great Tits, Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tits, Starling, and Dunnock so there are certainly birds around, they just don't seem to work to the clock anymore!

After i'd finished my hour I was still watching out the window and saw a flock of birds land in a distant tree - Waxwings! They stayed in the tree a couple of minutes before flying right over the house - very nice tick! 

Here's one bird we don't get in the garden very often, two appeared in the garden last week but didn't hang around long.