Nine members arrived at first light at Rufford Country Park on a cold but gloriously sunny
That’s how early!
day and it was shortly after that when eagle eyed ‘Blue Beard’ spotted a group of birds high up in one of the trees bordering the car park. Binocular view suggested Hawfinch and this was confirmed by scope. And there they remained as the light improved giving us excellent views of these superb birds. In addition, a small flock of Redwing browsing around the base of the trees gleamed in the sunlight and it also made the colouring of the Greenfinch vibrant.
Reluctantly the group left the car park and headed for the lake while being surrounded with bird song from Robins, Mistle and Song Thrushes. Overhead a pair of Great Spotted
Goosanders
Woodpeckers flew past. On the lake, as expected were Goosander and Pochard but not a lot else of note and sadly, after a complete circuit and back at the car park, there had been no sign of Siskin, Redpoll or Marsh Tit.
Following a report on Notts Birds website, we drove to Boughton Pumping Station, hoping to find Brambling in a corn field. Similar to Marsh Tit, we again drew a blank and were somewhat perplexed as to what these birds could have been feeding on.
So onto Welbeck Raptor Watchpoint arriving before 11:00 which might explain why there was no raptor activity. However, as the day warmed, Buzzards began to emerge and indeed
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- 1 km away – Buzzard pushing the bridge camera
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- Red Kite co-operating
at one point there were 10 in the air. Then they were joined by Red Kites and finally a Sparrowhawk followed by the jewel in the form of two Goshawks that spent quite a lot of
Goshawk at 1500 metres – a tad too far but you can see the long tail
time, wheeling and interacting with each other. Subsequently, a Raven flew over vocalising and a Great White Egret flew in.
All in all 63 species ID’d.
Thanks to Hilary Hodkinson for the photos