Ring-tailed Ouzel gets us twozl

Quite a cracking morning at The Lodge today.  Darren did a bit of vismig first thing, but apart from Wood Pigeons not much else was moving.  His highlight were up to three Woodlarks and a mighty Ring Ouzel south-west, leveling the playing field between RSPB and BTO.

I arrived a little later after being on an adjacent hill seeing just as little.  As I arrived, one of the Woodlarks was on a song-flight that went kept going for the next hour non-stop.  A Raven cronked over, and just as I reached the vismig spot another Ring Ouzel zoomed over west - right over Darren's head (and who never saw it!)

The best was saved to last however, when we tried to locate a furiously cronking Raven in a pine belt.  While scanning the tops of the trees a dark brown raptor came out the top of one of them - a ring-tail Hen Harrier!  Boom!  After an unid'd ring-tail over the house on Friday, this baby sealed the deal.

I think that makes us leaders in the bird stakes once again?  I should come to work at weekends more often...;-)

Ring Ouzel

Yesterday (Sunday), my black box beeped and the BirdGuides bird map showed a small square over The Lodge, with news of not just a Ring Ouzel, but also a Firecrest at The Lodge. A quick call to Dr Gurney and we were soon on site searching. We couldn't relocate either, although the RZ had been seen by volunteer Ben Andrew, so it counts towards our total. 111!