After last week's excitement , this week has been much less so , but a few bits of interest did turn up .
My usual stop at Keston Ponds produced at least a dozen Mandarin Ducks , equally split male to
female . The males still looking very smart as seen above , but the juvenile seen below , still has much smartening up to do if he is to become a contender with the ladies in the Spring .
A visit to Bough Beech did not produce the hoped for Brambling on the feeder in the orchard , but
plenty of Tits and Finches , as well as a pair of Nuthatches that were doing their best to empty the feeder in record time . Overhead there were plenty of Fieldfares , but unlike other years , no apples on the ground in the orchard to bring them down . The lack of fruit no doubt due to the awful Spring . A
pair of Yellowhammers was a pleasant sighting during the visit . A distant Kingfisher from the hide
was as good as I could do with that species . I was hoping that he would perch on one of the posts just
in front of the hide , but didn't complain when a Grey Wagtail did just that . A couple of duck species
were also seen from the hide , a rather splendid drake Pintail that always kept as far as he could from
the hide , and a female Shoveler that was completely the opposite , coming reasonably close .
A look around West Wickham Common came up with a few fungi species ,
Rubber Buttons or Black Bulgar / Bulgaria inquinans on Oak ,
Amethyst Deceiver / Laccaria amethystea ,
and Calvatia excipuliformis .
In the horse field on the bottom lane on the way home , were a good number of Rooks .
A late afternoon visit to the Barn Owl site in lovely late sunshine , found a Rabbit enjoying the conditions . He needed to keep a good lookout , there were two Common Buzzards over the adjoining field . But the female Owl did not appear until it was almost dark , thwarting my efforts of a
better in flight shot of her , but I shall keep trying .
The biggest surprise of the week came today whilst assessing what Winter work will be needed on
Adder glades , finding a young female , soaking up the sunshine , whilst others were well tucked up underground , a really good November record .
3 comments:
Still lots out there to be seen then Greenie.
Kingfisher and Greywag - two good species to get photo's of, and well done with that November Adder :-)
Lovely post Greenie, shame the Owl didn't come out a little earlier for you and a great variety of sightings again.
A lovely selection Greenie. What a treat to see the Adder so late in the year. Some great photos agan, the Grey Wagtail was posing perfectly as was the Rabbit and the drake Pintail certainly is a very striking looking duck. Of course I'm very envious of the Kingfisher and Barn Owl :-)
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