28th February

I had intended to walk along the Swale on the chance the cold weather last night would have pushed birds on to the river but a fishing contest put paid to that idea.  Instead I walked up to see if there were any Grey Wagtails on the manure heaps on the Thrintoft path (we birders do live lives of unalloyed glamour!).

There weren’t any Greys but there were a few Pied and half a dozen Meadow Pipits...

The light was great so a pity there weren’t any wagtails as these pictures I took last week in terrible light don’t do justice to this species.

In the paddock by the railway all five species of thrush were feeding and I saw Treecreeper and Nuthatch in the trees by the water works. This is the first time I’ve recorded Nuthatch in Morton and they do seem to be on the increase in the parish. Five Teal sprang up off the ox-bow pool and a group of moulting Reed Buntings were also here.

The small flood pool by the railway bridge looks good at the moment and has had up to 20 Teal and Snipe on this week. It will be interesting to see if this is still holding water when the waders start moving again. I also saw Merlin again over here during the week and it may well still be in the area.

On the way back I stopped off by the school to see if the Redpoll flock was still around and there were about 35 birds present. Whilst I was watching them this Buzzard flew low over St Helen’s Drive and on over the school towards Ainderby.