Ballachurry Reserve, 6th February 2019 & 9th February, 2019.

Click on photos to enlarge, click again to move on through them

no sign of the promised sunshine

Lured by the promise of a sunny day on Wednesday  I headed off early for the Reserve only to find grey skies,  quickly followed by a heavy shower. I made it into the Hide in the nick of time to keep the camera/binoculars dry. As the rain eased towards 11 o'clock I headed back to my car only to get thoroughly wet as down it came again worse than ever! Needless to say the sun did eventually come out but too late for my purposes. So I felt rather miffed! It wasn't an entirely fruitless visit though as you'll see from the bird list below:

Birds:

SC210694 Great Tit; male Chaffinch
SC209794 ( from hide) male Blackbird; Chaffinch; 6 x Goldfinch on church boundary.
SC208694 ( damp meadow)  2 x Great Tit
SC208694 ( compost area/ firs)  pair of Chaffinch; Robin; Wren; Dunnock; Blue Tit;  Goldcrest; Warbler  briefly seen 3 times, probably the Chiffchaff seen a few weeks ago. 3 x Magpie
SC208694 ( willows) Coal Tit; Great Tit;
SC208695 ( beehive loop) Blue Tit; male Chaffinch; Wren.
SC209694 ( gorse boundary) Great Tit;
SC209694 ( near path junction) male Blackbird

Other:

SC209694 Lesser Celandines in bloom
SC210694 Snowdrops amongst the brambles
SC208694 unidentified moss in damp meadow

first bird of the morning - a distant male Blackbird

this Dunnock was viewing the compost heap

as was the usual Robin

there was a time when it was hard to find moss at Ballachurry
this patch is growing in the middle of a puddle in the damp meadow

Hemlock Water Dropwort growing fast now

Lesser Celandines along the gorse boundary

 Snowdrops fighting their way through the brambles

a quick dash back to the car required!

It was disappointing to find the hide door open on arrival. It's usually a sign that the hide has been used by miscreants and sure enough there was litter inside as well as elsewhere on the reserve. It also lets in the winter weather, of course, which will shorten the life of the timbers. As usual the Police have been notified so they can step up their patrols in a bid to nip any anti-social behaviour in the bud.

9th February 2019

A non-recording visit to the Reserve ahead of next week's work party; just for the record:
SC209694  2 x Mallard on pond; 20 + Goldfinch flying over; Great Tit.

....and yet more litter and home rolled fag ends in the hide😞