A brilliant round off to the year on one of my regular dog walks behind the RSSKL farmland. Like most of the UK, numbers of farmland species are dwindling fast but today was not such a day. After crossing the A41 bridge and walking south towards Middle Farm, I stumbled across a female REED BUNTING sitting in the hedge! This was a patch first for me!!! Wow!!! Shortly after finding it, it flew a short way down the hedgerow, crossed the path and came to land in a dense patch of weeds were it didn't re-emerge.
Moving on, I came to the southern extent of my patch (the farmland bordering the northern side of Berrybushes Wood) to see a big flock of Yellowhammer fly in, I was overjoyed to say the least! Given that I rarely see more than two on a usual patch visit, such a large flock was unprecedented and in amongst them was a prob second Reed Bunting. This was patching at its best!
The neighbouring field held a total of 6 red list species feeding together and highlighted the importance of this habitat to them. The mixed flock included good numbers of Fieldfare, Redwing, Linnet, Yellowhammer, Starling and a Reed Bunting, this is what patching is all about for me. Rewarding top quality Birding!
Apologies for the number of exclamation marks, I'm just glad I ended this year on such a high!
Happy New Year to you all!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment