Brenda writes: “Today we had a walk at Gight Wood. The last time we were here was New Year’s eve when there was still quite a lot of snow around and the track down through the woodland was very icy in places. This is a wonderful walk through old woodland and along a U-shaped valley with the river Ythan meandering below and a ruined castle (Castle Gight). I love the glacial features of the landscape here, which are clearly visible. On the last occasion we saw a single goosander on the river and today we were lucky enough to see two. There were lots of small birds in the trees…but could I see them? In the end I got sight of blue and great tit but I know there were other things up there. This is going to be a wonderfully rich habitat of both birds and flowers later in the year. For now there was a wonderful show of snowdrops by a ruined cottage.”
I managed to also see coal tit and a flock of about 50 linnets. We also caught sight of a buzzard on the way home. Goosander brings the 2023 bird total to 120 species, which I’m very happy with.
New species for February 14th:
Birds: goosander
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 120
Moths = 3
Wildflowers = 15