WWT Sightings and Garden Latest

Saturday 23rd - Sunday 24th March 2013
Yes it's the Hawfinch again
The bitterly cold weather continues but at least some of the bird arrivals remind me that it is spring. A trip to WWT Slimbridge this morning provided year ticks for Little Ringed Plover, with two on the Holden scrape, and an adult Spoonbill, feeding on the Tack Piece. A Common Scoter was distant on the river, one of two seen this morning, while 14 White-fronted Geese were on The Dumbles, and a Water Rail was showing well at Willow Hide. A drake Garganey seen briefly on the Top New Piece, however, eluded me.
Spoonbill
Water Rail
In the garden, the male Hawfinch continues to visit, and I saw four, including at least two males, perched in trees beyond the bottom of my garden yesterday morning. These trees are at the edge of Dimore playing field. The general finch-feast continues in the garden, and a female Blackcap has also been seen recently feeding on the Mahonia flowers. Three Ravens flew over the garden heading east early this afternoon.
Female Blackcap - drinking nectar from Mahonia flowers
A walk around the Oxenhall area yesterday to see the Wild Daffodils produced a Crossbill over Greenaways Wood, and a Marsh Tit ar Shaw Common nearby, where a pair of displaying Ravens were also seen. It was unusual to see the Daffodils surrounded by the snow, still covering the ground in the area north of Newent, although they are mostly still in bud - I would expect them to be in full flower by this date in March.
Wild Daffodils and snow, GWT Betty Dawes Wood nr. Oxenhall

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