Monday 2 January 2012

Starting over

The 2011 Prestwick Carr list finished at 111 with some notable omissions and should really have been around 116 so I must try harder this year. A nice start yesterday with the third bird I saw being a Tree Sparow on the garden feeders. After topping them up and a quick breakfast out to start again. The day generally was very quiet and numbers were hard to find but it was noticable that many birds are already travelling as pairs and Great Tits were singing.
It didn't take long to locate the most important tick of the new year as the Shrike was being mobbed by Tits in the top of a large tree. It didn't seem to be bothered and stayed faithful to this location for most of the day giving many others good views although some made harder work of it than others. One photographer almost hit lucky as the bird impaled a vole on a hedge near the road. He described that the luckless animal as still dripping blood so staked out the staked out creature but unfortunately just drew attention to the area and was soon surrounded by onlookers which of course meant the Shrike didn't return for its meal.

Nothing else spectacular of note other than a nice tribe of 18 or so Long tailed tits accompanied by a couple of Goldcrest.


The day finished with Short eared Owls aplenty and the new list standing on a moderate 46.

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