Sunday, January 13, 2013
Dorney
The flood was busy at midday, although only with the usual suspects as far as I could see.
At least four collybita chiffchaffs were seen. I would like to see again the very pale grey bird which I photographed in December and haven't seen since; I'm past caring what it is, I just liked its colour scheme.
A solitary goldcrest was foraging just above the water in the Roundmoor Ditch.
As I walked from the cattle grid where I'd parked, a Cetti's warbler was singing just beyond the houses. This one also sang (from cover), then did a bit of muttering.
I was scanning the reed-beds as I walked along the Jubilee River, hoping for bearded tits; and if a chap on a bike hadn't stopped and looked up the bank, I would have walked right past three waxwings. A little while later, a small flock flew over me and joined them. There were at least fifteen.
They were feeding on rose hips - not their first choice, I'm sure. I've rarely seen any birds eating rose hips. Every year I dutifully leave the hips on our garden roses; and every year they turn black and mushy and fall off, with all the local birds ignoring them. The only creature I've seen take them is a grey squirrel, who ran off with a fistful back in the autumn but didn't seem to repeat the experiment. He also pulled the last blooms off the fuchsia and ate them on the patio in front of me; for which he got chased up the holly tree.
Last sighting from Dorney Common was of a flock of golden plover, at least seventy, flying around high and eventually moving off south-west.
// posted by Christine @ 8:52 AM 
