Thursday 19 February 2009

Normanby - What We Should Have Seen!

All photos for this post (c) 2009 Richard Hampshire
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
ditto
Bullfinch
Tawny Owl
I'm always writing posts about the birds we saw and heard, but today's post is about the birds we missed out on! When we were there on Tuesday someone elsewhere on the estate saw & heard a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, one of the really special birds of this site, but we decided to ignore it! After nearly 40 years of birdwatching my first two were both last year, so why would I want to see another one so soon? We knew where the Little Owls tend to be seen, but could we find them after hours of searching? - nay! No wonder the little tyke above looks so cross! There were plenty of finches around - Chaff, Gold, Green, and even a singing Siskin, but could we find one of the dull, dowdy miserable-looking Bullfinches, we could not!
Despite all these failures we had excellent views of 4 different treecreepers today; and the Nuthatches which gave us the run around yesterday, were back on form for Thursday. The Green Woodpeckers, Redwing & Stock Doves were full of the joys of spring, and the Hare sprinting across the deer enclosure was another highlight. The Jays put on a great performance today, and even gave us a couple of really close fly-bys. The site was new to most people who visited this week, and they are keen to revisit when the woodland birdsong is at its height, and the squealing sprogs are back at school!

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