We all pronounce things different, so I am sticking with the Wuzzbura one on this! 3 big walks in 3 days have made me very lazy, even with words.
We were stuck between going to our good friend the RSPB's site Old Moor at Dearne Valley, or Worsborough, we decided to go for the latter, I think we decided by toss of a coin, but the coin landed on the floor, and came back mossy side up. It was a weird coin.
We both had a few reservations about this country park, basically we knew there were species here, but didn't expect to see much.
What we found were more species in a day than you could see if we walked from here to Shrewsbury and back with another 30 pairs of eyes!
Anyway here we go, we won't go into as much detail about each species as there were so many to see, but as ever the links on the left hand side will provide you with more information, if that floats your boat.
So as it stands our total of species seen each for the past couple of years stand like this-
Jam865
Sam779
Sam did go to America for a month and cheat with the totals *cough*.
Anyway Arthur, back to Worsborough-
The place itself revolves around a very large resevoir, with open footpath all the way around, making it quite easy to stroll, even for the local Grandad types we saw on our way around.
So our species list, I will try to do it in alphabetical order, as basically that is how it is saved on our identification application(got an app for that!)
We had the lovely charm of seeing a single Blackcap, a bird that is obviously named, for appearing to wear a er, well a black cap!
Before I go on, I will just throw in that the lake is full of Mallards, watching a lovely gentlemen and his Sonny feeding them was like a scene from Oliver, who would have thought a greedy Mallard would come back for more? Oh wait, all of us!
The area is not just abundant with different species, but it is quite prolific with the amount of numbers of some species there.
We spotted over 20 Blue Tits, not far off the same amount of Great Tits, 30+ Canada Geese (they may be nasty at times but they have a mean laugh).
Again we were blessed with a bird that is fast becoming our favourite bird, the Goosander. We managed to spot 8 Redheads(female) and two Drakes(male). There is something about these water dwelling birds that is loveable, yet quite comical with the long chiselled beak, and the juddering neck/head movement (see photo below).
Back to the Tit family. We saw another 5 Coal Tit's, 3 Willow Tit, 1 Marsh Tit, and over 10 Long-Tailed Tit's. So all in all the Tit's were spread out, but we managed to cover most of them in the area!
And here's for something completely different. Well for what we see around where we live daily anyway!
In one day we managed to get the big 3! And when I say that I mean the Great Spotted Woodpecker, The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, and the Green Woodpecker. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, or LSW if you want to be called, was only heard, but that is normally the case with these elusive birds. To be quite honest, we still can't get over seeing/hearing all three of these in one day!
Other species we don't normally see in our back garden that we saw on this walk include the lovely Wren, which may or may not have been looking out for an old Blue Tit nestbox to relax in, which is something that is well heard of around the whole of the country. We also can't forget the graceful Grey Heron we saw, though not sure if we wanted to see it doing its toilet business! A massive spot for me (Jam) was a solo Treecreeper, and my word you can tell why they get their name.
Our best supporting cast awards would go to the lovely speckled Mike the Mistle Thrush, Russy brighter than rust Bullfinch and Larry, Moe and Curly the lovely 3 Linnets we saw!
Another couple of amazing spots we don't want to forget [but possibly one of the two would want to forget if the other clapped eyes on it!] is the wonderful Peregrine Falcon and the hard to spot Water Vole. Peregrines seem to take third place out of birds of prey sightings around where we live, following behind the Sparrowhawk and the well recognised Kestrel which we see in abundance. And to see a Water vole, especially due to the predation it suffers from other British Mammals, let alone the hunting by invasive species such as the Mink, well it is always nice to see!
Before I finish I want to give a little nod to a couple more species we saw there. Two Golden Plover, and one Lapwing.Both amazing visitors through autumn and winter, and it was even more lovely to see them back on our resevoirs after the winter cold snap, which reduced an awful lot of their places of interest to sheer ice. So hats off to the lovely species.
We both hope you have enjoyed our blog again, and whatever you do don't forget to do the RSPB's big garden birdwatch next weekend, if you have the time.
All the best, and happy wildlife hunting.
Sam & Jam x
I'd be interested in how you managed to distinguish marsh from willow tit as I can never make my mind up which is which as they are very similar unless you are real close.
ReplyDeletewhat bins/scopes do you use?