Saturday dawned cold and frosty with not much action on the birding front it being noticable on the walk down to the Carr that many birds were moving towards the relative warmth of the village and gardens. As such I spent the fist half hour trying to create an Andy Goldsworthy shot.
Near the mid point of my walk this vole gambled up the road toward me. It must have poor eyesight as it got to ten feet away before it realised I was there and scampered off into the undergroth. Guess I must have been upwind. The deer got a whiff though but remained unspooked by my presence.
After and hour or so I realised that the count wasn't going to pass forty species and that gulls were totally absent. Normally on my walk down there is a constant stream of Black headed gulls and smaller numbers of Common and a few larger gulls, all heading inland. Yesterday none, presumably due to the frost but it was clear, sunny and pleasant so why? This begs the question I have often pondered as how birds seem to know that conditions are or are not ideal in places far from their roost. Surely some first winters would turn up as they wouldn't know any better or do they follow the adults or do I just under estimate the extent of their inbred natural instincts. After all, why would any bird suddenly fly off over the sea in a particular direction without any knowledge there was something better over the horizon?
Out and back I pushed the remaining flock of Redpoll up and down the road but they never let you get closer than about twenty feet. A couple of light ones in amongst them but getting a good view for positive ID of mealys is a task. This one looked a bit strange and the shot seems to indicate a yellow poll but maybe just a trick of the light.
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