Winter torpor

It’s exceptionally quiet at the moment. On the river a single Mute Swan has taken up residence again. As it’s on exactly the same stretch of the river I assume this is the bird which spent the late winter/spring here.

Four Goosander, two Buzzards, a small flock of Siskin and a single Little Egret were the only other sightings of note.

The local egrets now gather to roost at Bolton-on-Swale lakes and this week there were a remarkable 22 birds there (along with 88 Cormorants). It would be interesting to know how wide an area the egrets fly in from as there are never reports of more than the odd one or two birds on the local rivers. It’s also an amazing change of status for a species that I travelled all the way down to Somerset to twitch only a relatively short time ago!