A real birding outing.
Posted 15-01-10 at 08:08 PM by Dave H
Following the disappointment of our canceled New Year's day outing, we tried to make up for it with our first visit to Pennington Flash last Sunday and probably our first real birding outing (other than to our usual park for a walk with bins).
It was all frozen, of course. We were treating it as a sort of trial run, hoping that it wouldn't be too busy. We walked a circuit but didn't see much life other than in the crowds of water fowl at the car park, all keen on being the first to catch whatever the visitors threw to them.
We visited every hide that we passed, all were deserted, their outlook being frozen wasteland.
On retreating to the car, we popped into the last hide of our circuit, the Bunting hide. This hide had a few birders in place, chatting softly about the whereabouts of the latest sighting. There were several feeders in a small clearing in front of the hide, some hanging fat balls and a small variation in feed set out.
The clearing was covered in snow, like everywhere else, giving the most wonderful even light to the feeding tables. We were amazed, to say the least! We had fantastic views of numerous Bullfinches, Greenfinches, Blue Tits, Great tits, Long tailed Tits (so cute!) and fleeting sights of what we think were Marsh Tits. A single Dunnock, Reed Buntings, Wrens and The usual Robins etc and the vacuum brigade, the larger birds sweeping up the food falling to the floor.
We were thrilled to see these, a few we had not seen in anything like such detail before. A great first outing. We are looking forward to more birding outings.
It was all frozen, of course. We were treating it as a sort of trial run, hoping that it wouldn't be too busy. We walked a circuit but didn't see much life other than in the crowds of water fowl at the car park, all keen on being the first to catch whatever the visitors threw to them.
We visited every hide that we passed, all were deserted, their outlook being frozen wasteland.
On retreating to the car, we popped into the last hide of our circuit, the Bunting hide. This hide had a few birders in place, chatting softly about the whereabouts of the latest sighting. There were several feeders in a small clearing in front of the hide, some hanging fat balls and a small variation in feed set out.
The clearing was covered in snow, like everywhere else, giving the most wonderful even light to the feeding tables. We were amazed, to say the least! We had fantastic views of numerous Bullfinches, Greenfinches, Blue Tits, Great tits, Long tailed Tits (so cute!) and fleeting sights of what we think were Marsh Tits. A single Dunnock, Reed Buntings, Wrens and The usual Robins etc and the vacuum brigade, the larger birds sweeping up the food falling to the floor.
We were thrilled to see these, a few we had not seen in anything like such detail before. A great first outing. We are looking forward to more birding outings.
Total Comments 3
Comments
-
Nice one Dave,
Glad it paid off in the end - Pennington Flash is on my list of places to visit.Posted 15-01-10 at 08:25 PM by alanjns
-
Sounds a real pleasant day Dave and great to see the Bullfinches as they are such stunning birds.
Posted 15-01-10 at 11:48 PM by JONNY74
-
I think your Marsh Tits were actually Willow Tits, they are quite common at the feeders there, you can also get Waterail under the feeders joining the vacuum brigade. Pennington is well worth a visit any other time than when its frozen so put it on your list for the future.Posted 11-02-10 at 06:15 PM by Merlin
