Thursday 3 March 2016

February 25th 2016 Cranes and Whooper Swans

Thursday 25th February light to fresh N Sunny 5 to 7C

A message on facebook from David Gray tells me that there are five bean geese about five miles from me. I am surprised that I haven't received any text messages from the oracle.
Two miles out of Whittlesey I receive six messages on my mobile in quick succession. Bean geese at Nene washes RSPB reserve, I pedal there as quickly as my short, fat, hairy legs can go.
It is a beautiful clear sunny day and the cold accentuates the sound of whooping from a pair of cranes quite a distance away.

No sign of the bean geese unfortunately, the list grows though as a couple of whooper swan family parties flies by whooping.

In beautiful sunshine and a cool northerly breeze I explore around a gravel pit that has a lot of duck on it and disturb a couple of muntjac. The way they dash off with their tails held vertical is interesting, making them very visible amongst the tall vegetation.
A couple of peregrines buzz around too disturbing large flocks of golden plovers and lapwings.


I leave to go search of a rough-legged buzzard at Thorney. Three hours of searching gives me only a single common buzzard and a very distant barn owl.

So the year list is now at 172, nineteen ahead of this time last year.


37.96 Miles      417 elevation up      429 elevation down

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