Through the mist...

3 in one, not my pic though

I'm on a good run on the bird spotting front at the moment {must convert these observations into photos though} and started this week well at Snowshill Manor on tuesday, spotting a family of 3 green woodpeckers {they do like the pastures with abundant ant mounds, clearly containing live ants} and a red wing.

Weather today advertised as dry & sunny and surprisingly this looked to be true first thing this morning in Cheltenham. However things didn't turn out as planned after a text from Mike ruled him out of action through illness {Rangers are human after all} and fog & mist were to persist throughout the day. Not put off by these setbacks I decided to head over to Greater Barrington to approach the river Windrush via the Barrington estate. It was to be an eerily quiet walk with limited visibility and very little signs of life. Things picked up as I turned left towards the Windrush and the Sherborne estate where I spotted 6 forlorn looking red kite perched at the top of some Cyprus trees followed by a couple of Kestrels one perched on an electric fence plastic pole looking very sorry for itself. It certainly wasn't great weather for raptors given the visibility issues plus their prey was probably hunkered down in the poor weather. On a more cheery note I was pleased to see  20 or so goldfinches happily flying about through the long grasses and stands of teasel. Ever hopeful that the fog/mist would lift I crossed over the Windrush to check out the willow tit nest boxes and see what was happening around the Water meadows. It was interesting to see sheep for the first time in the previously 'wild' ground the Sherborne 'hyde' overlooks. Spotted another less than happy raptor, a buzzard, a tree creeper, a few field fares and a lot of 'disturbed' rooks. Water levels in the ditches and the river Windrush were down from my last visit but still healthy enough. With visibility worsening and even less wildlife sightings I decided to call it a day, not too disappointing a day after all.

Its getting near decision time on CAP spending will the NFU or the Environment win the day, Martin Harpers blog reminds us what's at stake.