Sunday 15 February 2009

One Ring, No Wing

Headed up to stringer territory late morning, and after a half hour or so had fleeting views of the apparently wintering male ring ouzel - my first encounter with this species in the winter. A nice bonus bird for the non existent year list, a species always good to see. The RO flew in from over the back of the farm buildings, perhaps it is feeding in the fields too. I could not locate any of the white-fronted geese at Low Newton so headed to more familiar territory in the southern part of the county, with stop offs at Amble - no adult iceland gull, and Cresswell - no barn owl or bittern seen during a brief stop, but thousands of pink-footed geese in the fields surrounding the pool. Final stop was Bothal Pond where the green-winged teal wasn't on show. It's almost a pity I saw the RO, could have had a clean sweep!

Much milder today, I see that a great spotted cuckoo was found in County Cork today. It must be spring!

1 comment:

Alan Tilmouth said...

Need to be an early bird John, GWT was showing very well at 07:30.