"with great power there must also come great responsibility" - a lark in the park

another garden year tick went over this morning before our walk out, a Yellowhammer.

After a couple of hundred yards we were at the town park.
It has some nice trees amongst largely regimented Sycamores, with a few each of mature Scots Pine, Holly, Yew, Lime, H.Chestnut & Beech.

But sadly & rather predictably, its systematically & rather zealously manicured - each time we go something else has been chainsawed ....
i can understand clearing the shrub layer & understorey to prevent the undesireables, but removal of mature Holly, Yew & Hawthorn for no clear reason is nothing short of vandalism.

Anyway, a fair selection of species remain - those in song including Mistle Thrush, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, & Goldcrest - the old Scots Pines & Yews are one of the few local spots were i can guarantee catching up with them

A couple of surprises up there today, firstly a pair of Nuthatch feeding together - not a common sight here, although i was hoping for a few more vocals from them... maybe they already realise theres no others of their kind here ?

Next surprise was a lot bigger & a lot brighter........

Local patch mega - SPiDERMAN !!!!!

Wonder how he got up there....... ?



Nowt to dee wi'us




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We took an afternoon trip not far outside the we are wandering birding zone

carpet of Snowdrops

Sleepy Hollow -  a rare one of yours truly

the 3 of us couldnt quite reach round this big Beech - maybe in a couple of years...

A Barnie on the way home capped the day off nicely

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Local Patch craic
Passage cock Stonechat & another Shortie moving through the patch
Fresh Tree Spug boxes up in areas where we have had recently had wintering / passing birds
1 Tawny on eggs, a prospecting Goosander pair lurking in a likely area, frogspawn at 2 spots & an un-id'ed bat out on thursday. Dippers messing around a bit
i mentioned Goldcrest in one of the paragraphs above - over the last 3-4 weeks ive had Goldcrest re-appear in 4 different decidious/ scrub locations having been absent since the autumn.