Wednesday 7 February 2018

The inevitable....

...pinhole burns....all down the front of my favourite satin shirt....
         Nobody Home, R Waters (Pink Floyd)

...well..actually....the inevitable snow picture....


0900 - 1140 cold, snow, occasional flurry, overcast but brightening NE f1-2

In the quarry the finings pile has, somewhat, grown....


...there must be at least 150 tons ish....

Pretty quiet round the site though I found three Bullfinch flocks, 2 of these contained 5-6 birds, but the third had at least twice as many.....

Water levels remain high, as can be seen below....this is the footpath that runs to the west of middle pit....

....looking north...

Signs of Spring continue despite the recent snow and drops in temperature....


I found this Fox today near middle pit....it was certainly recently dead, possible in the last 24 hours....there were no obvious signs of why it had died....but...all things must pass....

Fox....dead....

The last visit produced no Teal....today I found 9....so a return to the usual number on site...there was lots of displaying going on....they have also returned to their usual spot at the eastern end of island pit....

Teal with a Coot....

Another species that seemed to have disappeared were the Goldeneye, the two females that were on middle pit could not be found last time out....but today there were 3 females and one male diving like crazy at the west end of middle pit....

Goldeneye male

Goldeneye female

Duck numbers have reduced, no count today as I didn't have anything to write on...must be a bit more organised....I did count around 45 Shoveler, 5 Pochard...Tufted Duck numbers were also reduced....3 Gadwall...there was definitely 1 Water Rail, but possibly 2....

Surprise for today was on west pit....this is the first time in five years of visiting the pits that I have found a Black-necked Grebe....it was a bit panicky when some Tufted Ducks meandered past...but heres my best shots that I could get....







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