After watching the birds near the feeding station I went on to North Marsh hide which was well and truly frozen over, no chance of Kingfishers today unless they had an ice breaker!
All was quiet for the first half hour with only a Wren feeding amongst the frozen reeds just in front of the hide for company. After a while I was aware of some movement on the far bank, but was not sure what it was with it being partly obscured some bushes, could it be a Barn Owl? Then ten minutes later it came back in full view, if only the light had been a bit better, still a great sighting though.
I was busy enjoying watching him and was vaguely aware of movement to my right and there was a Fox trotting down the bank and over the ice! My first sighting of a Fox, this day was just getting better and better.
Before I left the hide the Barn Owl flew from behind me right over the roof in the middle of a blizzard.
As I opened the door to leave there he was again in the trees just to the left of the path. I saw Barn Owls on five occasions throughout the day, the last on being near the drain on the way down to the river.
When I got down to the river there were several Redwing in the bushes in the middle of the river keeping out of trouble...
or so they thought, when suddenly they scattered and a female Sparrowhawk landed right where the Redwing had been just seconds before. What a fantastic end to a great day.
That is the great thing about wildlife watching you can make plans, have high hopes and try to get yourself in the right place at the right time to see our wonderful wildlife, but you never know what each day will bring.
No comments:
Post a Comment