Iceland - 4th - 8th March 2022

Saturday, 7 December 2013

Raptors and owls!

Hello

A visit to Brixworth Sewage Works today provide views of a Peregrine, and two Grey Wagtails amongst quite a flock of Pied Wagtails.

Myself and Baz fed the birds at the start of the track at Harrington Airfield, and it wasn't long before at last 6 Bramblings appeared. There is quite a lot of fallen leaves on the ground which makes it rather a challenge picking out the Bramblings from the orange and gold colours of these leaves.

We flushed a Woodcock and 2 Short-eared Owls on our walk.  I suspect that the Short-eared Owls are very recent arrivals judging by their flighty action.

There were 2 Red Kites over Walgrave village, seen as I opened my parents' front door, after I had visited them.

Poor Baz really wanted a snooze this afternoon, but I had other ideas !!! It was such a glorious afternoon and I couldn't miss the opportunity of a good walk around the Blueberry Farm complex.
There was a tractor ploughing which attracted large numbers of gulls, corvids, Starlings and winter thrushes.  They were very vocal and a real test for my ears!!!  Anyway it wasn't long before there were calls of alarm and chaos as a female Peregrine whizzed through, closely followed by 2+ Ravens.

When I reached the summit of the large field I loitered awhile to give Baz a rest and there was a fantastic sight of 3 Red Kites, the resident white Common Buzzard, a Raven and a Short-eared Owl all circling around in the air together, with the Raven and kites being very vocal.  It really was a beautiful scene.

Other birds on our walk included a Barn Owl, Woodcock and a pair of Stonechat.

Regards 

Eleanor

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