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| Yes, that's the sun about to disappear for the rest of the day. |
You must all be thoroughly fed up of me moaning about the way the sun always goes in when I arrive at the Reserve! Unfortunately the same thing happened on Friday. After a glorious morning of sunshine and virtually no breeze, I arrived at the Reserve around 1.30 p.m. I just had time to notice that the Wolf Spiders were back enjoying the sunshine for the first time this year, when it clouded over, the temperature plummeted and we were back to the grey skies of January to which we are becoming accustomed. Was I down hearted? Not a jot! I had an excellent afternoon seeing about 20 or so species of bird. In fact I lingered until 4.30 by which time the light was fading and I needed a hot drink to revive me. Here is my list:
Birds:
SC209694 ( path junction) Robin; Goldcrest flying over; Snipe; Song Thrush flying over; Great Tit; Blue Tit; Wren; female Blackbird
SC209694 ( gorse boundary) pair of Reed Bunting ( 2 sightings of these about 90 minutes apart) 2 x Blue Tit; Great Tit; 2 x Goldfinch; Robin; Song Thrush ( singing!) Magpie flying over.
SC209694 ( from hide) male Blackbird; 2 x Blue Tit; Wren; male Sparrowhawk sitting in tree @ approximately SC209693 This bird sat in an Alder between the reserve and the church for a long time, but I could not get the camera to focus because of intervening vegetation. I moved outside the hide to get a better view but only got one more blurry shot before it flew away.
SC208694 ( willows) male Blackbird; 2 x female Chaffinch; 3 x Goldfinch; Great Tit; 3 x Long Tailed Tit; male Pheasant.
SC208694 ( firs) Wood Pigeon; Grey Heron
SC208694 ( boardwalk area) female & male Blackbirds; 2 x Great Tit; Wren; Robin; Goldcrest
SC208695 ( beehive loop) Wren; 2 x Great Tit. Pheasant heard but not seen.
SC209695 (near private entrance & mature trees ) Great Tit; 2 x male Chaffinch; male & female Chaffinch together; 2 x Goldfinch; Wren; 2 x Blue Tit. Flock of approx. 10 Redwing flew from firs and landed in the Sycamores. 2 x Blackbird.
SC208694 ( Reed bed) Water Rail heard twice.
SC209694 single Mallard flying over
Usual Corvids and Herring Gulls flying over
As I arrived at the Reserve a birding friend was just leaving. He told me that he had heard 2 Water Rails during his visit, one from the reed bed and one from the pond area. Hopefully they are different sexes! He too had seen 20+ species, but not entirely the same ones as myself. Just goes to show how many birds use Ballachurry.
Other:
SC209693 still some Scurfy Twiglet fungi along the path parallel to the road
SC209693 2 Wolf Spiders seen sunning themselves on the dead stems of Hemlock Water Dropwort.
SC209694 and SC209695 plenty of Celandines now in flower.
SC208694 probably Coral Spot fungus on boardwalk timbers.
SC208694 Lichen on handrail continues to spread . Previously identified as Parmelia sulcata ( with thanks to Dr. John Wardle)
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| Celandines popping up everywhere now |
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| close up of one of the Celandines |
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| fungus recycling the boardwalk |
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| it's possibly Coral Spot |
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| Scurfy Twiglet still appearing along the paths |
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| Parmelia sulcata lichen on the hand rail |
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| Wolf spiders are back |
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| Wood Pigeon |
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| a couple of the Redwings taken from afar - gone of course by the time I walked over there |
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| my friend the Robin |
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| Distant shot of the male Reed Bunting |
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| and another view |
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| far from being distant, the female Reed Bunting landed in a tree very close to me and preened for some time. Intervening branches made a photo difficult though. |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Blue Tit |
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| taken from near the Hide - this actually looks brighter than it really was! |
