Saturday 19 December 2009

Skid row


Icy conditions down on the track. A couple of teenagers were busy developinga 30 foot ice slide. Oh to be young again!

Most of the news came from other people. Ray Hobbs reported seeing 19 tree sparrows on the maize fields and 40 coot in a small ice free patch of Freemans pool.
One of the regular dog walkers reported seeing the barn owl last week at Freemans pool last week. Good to see that it is in the area still but was it visiting the eastern side of the Lune from a roost on the the other side?

An unusual sighting were 2 ringed plover with 2 dunlin 100m upstream of the pylons. Not a patch tick for me but I did treble the number of ringed plover I have seen down here.
A kingfisher flew over heading from the sewerage works to the river, 1 water rail on the frozen cycle track and 4 song thrush in a field with a few blackbirds.

Guy

3 comments:

Jon Carter said...

Howdo Aldcliffe chalice bearers!
Has anyone managed to check last year's LEO regular roosting site yet? Is it owl-less? Shame that the building that was obviously the daytime roost for the barn owl was dismantled earlier this year... not too many other likely spots left on the Aldcliffe side of the river for it. Good to know that one's around though.

Guy McClelland said...

Yes I've visited the roosts on a couple of occasions though I have not gone too close to have a really good look in. I have also had a couple of late afternoon sessions. I have not seen anything yet though there always seems to be corvid activity round the site you found.
Have a good Christmas.

Jon Carter said...

Hi Guy - thanks. I'm rather missing the old patch... I hope a long-eared does re-appear, it would be great if you were able to determine a regular wintering site for them in the LDBWS area. Have a good Crimbo too!