Lucky you DT, an elusive bird. Funnily enough a dog flushed one by the Wharfe in Otley during this snow. Saw one in the Autumn as I was walking through Dob Park woods, Washburn valley to a walling job at dawn.Flew off very low to the ground. Very long beak.
Barden Bridge is good
I'm unable to offer you the majestic or rare sightings usual on here. All I can offer is a Blackbird that spend 3 days with the Beast from the East at the end of our garden. We topped up the bird table in the shadow of the Rowan tree at the end of our garden early Wednesday morning, knowing the Beast would be roaring it's way to us by the afternoon.
MrRTS left for work down South at 4am on Thursday morning (I make this sound easy but actually it was with the help of our local farmers and friends digging him out and towing him to the A515).
Mr Blackbird made his appearance at 9am, amid gales and snow blizzards. The snow was 6 inches deep by 10am slowly creeping up the bird table. I made some fat cakes out of porridge oats, bits of apple, sultans, bread and cheese. Taking it up at 12noon to put with the seeds already out. No other birds made an appearance all through Thursday and Friday, just MrB. The snow had reached the top of the table by Friday morning, 2 foot deep. MrB when not eating was sheltering in a little snow dip between the tree and the table, his feathers puffed up to make him twice his size trapping in the warm air. 48hrs being buffeted, and blasted by some of the worse weather I have ever seen.
This morning he was there at sunrise, the wind had dropped and the snow was still. Other birds started to make an appearance. MrB was having none of it and chased them off. It was so funny to watch him. Territorial and standing much bigger than he is.
This little Blackbird is no more. He is now a majestic eagle with a lions ROAR!!
All that from my living room window in Flagg <3
Great story!Originally Posted by RaceTheSweeper
I was at Barden Bridge yesterday and ran/waded up Simons Seat. No Woodcock, just grouse and very deep drifts. First footsteps to the top.
A couple of months and you’ll be right enough for a roding woodcock. Only problem is the ice-cream van will have long gone
A nice story Mrs RTS, as good a wildlife encounter as any others posted on this thread.
Snipe in our back garden yesterday, strutting round poking his extremely long beak into the grass to find worms. Cat was very interested, but we didn’t let him out
I was struck by the volume of birdsong as I went out for my run this morning (and it's not as if an 8:35 start is early enough for the dawn chorus). It's amazing what a few days of warm weather can do after the recent freeze.
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges
It’s like the birds lost a couple of weeks and have some catching up to do. Look out for rookery renovation and birds carrying nesting material. Anyone heard a chiffchaff yet? GeoffB? Wharfee lad?
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