Another walk down the track

I went for another walk down the track as there is a lot of bird activity going on still. These are some of the birds I saw.

Pied wagtail, conspicuos by its calls in flight and tail bobbing action while walking.

There were still lots of red wing, solitary or in small flocks, the next two pictures are red wing. More info about these birds in my previous entry.

There were also great tit, blue tit, green finch, chaffinch, sparrows and starlings.

There was also a robin in a bush, fluffed up into a round ball, this shape is the best for energy saving to reduce core body heat loss.

Longtailed tits, Gold crest and Redwing

As I walked back from taking our daughter to school I was attracted by the sounds calls of Longtailed tits up in the trees. I watched them as they flitted around, hardly staying in one place for more than a second, making them quite difficult to photograph.

I carried on and walked through Easthill Park. There was lots of bird activity today; blackbirds, thrush and numerous blue tits. I was attracted by a small bird in the bushes at the edge of the park. I followed it as it flitted from branch to branch, bush to bush. My perseverance was rewarded, it was a tiny goldcrest. The goldcrest is the UK's smallest songbird, dull green above and buff white below with a distinctive orange or yellow crown stripe. In winter it may join with flocks of tits and other woodland species. It was the presence of blue tits that first attracted my attention. I managed to take a few pictures. They are not very good as it was quite dark and the goldcrest moved very quickly.

As with many of our songbirds, the goldcrest population has declined recently. Goldcrest also suffer in very cold winters, this year being a change to the recent succession of mild winters.

They are known to take up residence in suburban parks and large gardens. Apparently large numbers of migrants arrive in the UK in the Autumn and may be found in coastal bushes, particularly on the east and south coasts.

Just before left the park I noticed a small flock of Redwings. Unfortunately they were disturbed by a car before I got a close look and they flew up into the trees.

Redwing

Redwing and grey squirrel

Our daughter only had a half day at school so I went to meet her at 12.30pm. It was a sunny day (the mornings and evenings are still quite dark and so the birds are usually waking up or getting ready to roost). As I approached the field of the animal sanctuary a big flock of thrush-like birds flew off to the west and disappeared into the trees. As I carried on along the road I saw another flock underneath the trees in Easthill Park feeding in the grass with some blackbirds. This time I got a closer look.

They were Redwing (as I had suspected of the earlier flock). There appeared to be about 12, but it was hard to see as they blended in really well with the leaf litter. Redwing are a winter migrant arriving October to November and leave again about March and April. Most of our winter redwing come from Siberia. Flocks of redwing roam across the UK's countryside, feeding in fields and hedgerows, occasionally visiting large gardens and more frequently observed in parks.

Redwing feed mainly on invertebrates and also berries and windfall fruit. It has been estimated that around 685,000 Redwing visit the UK in the winter months.They occasionally mix with flocks of fieldfare, another winter migrant.

On the way back home we saw this grey squirrel. From a distance we saw it leaping about in the branches. Then a roudy group of people came by and it scampered onto the trunk and pushed itself flat so that it blended with the bark.