Last week I had teambuilding with work in Snowdonia. During a treasure hunt by foot in the local area I saw goldfinch, robins, an unidentified bird of prey (I thought maybe a peregrine falcon but I am not sure enough to put it on my list) and a Spotted Flycatcher which was brilliant to see catching a big fly with precision and flying back to the tree it had been sitting on.
On the way home two of my colleagues were going mountain biking at Llandegla Forest so I managed to bum a lift with them, since I had read that 50% of the welsh population of Black Grouse were within a mile of the area.
I had 2 hours before my lift departed and it took me about 50 minutes to get to the RSPB hide. It started raining just as I arrived and sadly I didn't see any Black Grouse along the heather carpeted moors but I did see a new bird I didn't recognise. There were a group of sparrow sized birds with pinky/reddish chests, white wing stripes and black heads. I managed to take a very crap photo of one as they darted from bush to bush. When I got home I had a look through and identified the birds as Stonechat which was new for my list too.
After 15 minutes at the hide (which was locked up) I had to hotfoot it back to the carpark in the pouring rain. On the way back several times I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the bushes but I didn't think I had time to stop, since I didn't want to miss my lift. I did see plenty of Great Tits at one point though in a bigger group than I have seen before (maybe 20 birds).
Back in the carpark with 15 minutes to spare I ate some cake whilst surrounded by Chaffinches and then got my ride home. I am now number 287 on the 2014 Britain Bubo rankings with 71 species. http://www.bubo.org/Listing/view-all-lists.html?showlists=1,BOU,1,2014,0
I weighed myself when I got home and since I started bird watching I have lost 4lb - not bad! My body fat % was 46.5% in a recent medical a couple of months ago and that is at least now going in the right direction too at 45.5%. Birdwatching is good for your health!
No comments:
Post a Comment