My garden sparrows
Fieldfares from the public footpath at Worthenbury
Woodpigeon doing his best to bump up the biomass
Numbers were definitely down this year - only 29 birds in all, and 9 of those were house sparrows. Other species recorded: blue tit, long-tailed tit, coal tit, robin, wren, blackbird, woodpigeon, jackdaw. No finches, no starlings and no dunnocks, which is unusual. I wonder if other birdwatchers have found this kind of a dip?
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We have noticed that a lot of our Winter visitors here... in Central France... are missing this year.
Despite the "WET", the mildness has meant that they don't need to migrate as far south...
there are still plants flowering and insects galore around.
Our feeders are popular...
but only with the Blue and Great Tits, the sparrows, robins and a few gold and green finches.
The wrens, dunnocks and chaffinches are here as always...
gleaning under the feeders.
We've had Siskin through, feeding in the alders...
but only one sighting of a female Brambling... two of Reed Buntings.
None of the migratory thrushes at all!!
And the flocks of mixed passerines are smaller...
but more frequently encountered...
making me think that they haven't been forced to congregate more...
We saw hardly a bird over the Big Garden Birdwatch w/e...
it was raining hard [again]...
the LPO [French RSPB] now hold their count the same w/e which should begin to show some migration data in a few years.
Monday of this week was sunny... and the birds were out in force!!
On the Water Vole front... because it has been so mild...
we've had sightings along the millstream...
again on Monday, I saw two leap off a fallen fencepost and into the water...
immediately vanishing...
my guess is that they re-entered the female's domain by one of the underwater entrances.
We usually get to see these mating runarounds in early March...
first time I've seen a chase going on in early Feb!!
I haven't been out looking for mine yet. Perhaps over half term (next week) I'll get chance. I have had sightings in February, but more often it's March or even April here. Such a joy when you see the first vole!
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