Three weeks ago, the Forestry Commission hid here...
...now this is all that's left...
The reason? An argument between Eunice and Franklin over who would be the wolf and who would be the three little pigs. I have no idea who won, but somebody's 'huff and puff' did the job. Not only that, but they did a pretty good job on many of the trees along the north path too...
I'd returned after the early morning woodpecker extravaganza to walk the dog and take in Hillcrest Quarry - a part of the patch I had yet to hit up this year. I always have a bit of a buzz when I'm near the gorse, as it potentially provides a different habitat mix than the woody/watery norm of the reserve proper. It's also where I've had Linnet in the past and so I guess subconsciously, that was why we ended there - that and a surfeit of D.absens (see previous blog). Ironically, of the finches that part of the patch throws up, hound and I got pretty much all of them, except Linnet. There were Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Bullfinch and Chaffinch singing and L.Redpoll over calling. Linnet though? Carduelis absens...
In fact, absence, it seemed, was the word of the day, as there were no raptors from the ironically named Raptor Watch View Point either...
...ah well, on the brighter side, there were 35 Tufty (largest count this year for me), 5 L.Grebe, 10 Wigeon and handfuls of Coot, Cormorant and Moorhen on Lapwing Lake...
...on the cloudier side, I lost ANOTHER pair of glasses to the Snipe (see previous blog), this time my rather nice white round-lensed prescription sunglasses. So if you're out and about and spot them, be a dear, keep them safe and drop me a comment... and in the meantime, I'll set about training the wee dog to sniff them out. Apparently, I am not the only donor to the Snipe foodbank... so who knows, we may find YOUR glasses...
Snipe 2 - 0 Mark
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