Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Egypt Wood
Silver birches are looking less bleak and wintry, with leaf-buds and catkins emerging.
In the woods they were attracting this male siskin, one of half a dozen feeding there. Coal, blue, and long-tailed tits were also present with a treecreeper or two; and a couple of great spotted woodpeckers chased each other through the oaks.
On my last visit I flushed what was probably a woodcock; I'd gone off-track to avoid a vehicle-rutted mess of mud and was making my way across an area of flattened bracken. I'd just thought to myself "Must look out for woodcock" when it happened, too fast for the switching on of camera or even the lifting of bins.
But no lesser-spot, on that occasion or this. That's six visits (admittedly mostly brief ones) to the woods now without a sighting.
// posted by Christine @ 10:40 AM 
