Ballachurry Reserve, 11th December 2018.

gloomy old December day

My visit to the Reserve this Tuesday was  very different from my last report. What a difference a week can make! With a bad forecast for most of the week I made the best of a bad job. No Snipe or Water Rail this time, although it was good to see the Long Tailed Tits, one of my favourite birds.

Birds:

SC209694 ( gorse boundary) Long Tailed Tit
SC209695 ( near private entrance) Blackbird; Robin heard but not seen; Wren.
SC208695 ( old beehive loop)  2 x Jackdaw; Great Tit; 2 x Blackbird; Wren
SC208694 ( compost area/ reed bed) Robin; male and female Blackbirds together; Magpie heard not seen; Chaffinch heard not seen; 2 x Long Tailed Tit;
SC209694 ( hide) Blackbird; Great Tit; Wren

Other:

SC209694 unidentified fungus in grass
SC208694 unidentified fungus on fallen birch tree.
SC209693 Scurfy Twiglet fungi in wood chip

hoping to get these identified 

I think these are Scurfy Twiglet , as last year

the fallen birch tree near the compost heap is being recycled
by fungus - will try to have it identified.

a closer view

a young Blackbird?  I checked with  Neil Morris of manxbirdlife
who said:

young (1^st winter) Blackbird in transitional moult.

Thanks, Neil.

I also put up a Trail Camera that afternoon and retrieved the
SD card a few days later

quality not wonderful, but we caught a Robin on camera

and again after dark

I shall be adjusting the angle of the camera next time to focus at ground level in the hope that something interesting might just be passing by. 

Watch this space!