Saturday 3 January 2015

Long distance birding......

Happy New Year to you all.  A good proportion of the Christmas holidays has been spent in Lincolnshire. This means a 4 hour journey down the A697, A1, M62, M18 and M180.  This can seem a bit boring but there are always things to see especially birds.

We went south on the 27th December.  The highlights of the road trip included a Rough-legged buzzard (sitting on the side of the M18 just north of the M180 turn-off - black breast/belly patch showing very well with a pale head), 3 Red kites (York - Wetherby area on the A1 with excellent views of one individual drifting over the carriage way), 7 Kestrels (I try to count as many Kestrels as I can on long journeys - the best count on this journey was 19 but this is a few years ago), Lapwing, Golden plover etc.

On the way home (2nd January) there were again 2 Red kites (Wetherby area), 6 Kestrels, a female Sparrowhawk (that flew under the central-reservation barrier and carried on to a wood on the other side - it was very fortunate not to be hit by a vehicle), 3 Bullfinches, 10+ Lesser black-backed gulls (York area), and a good number of Fieldfares, Redwings and Blackbirds. 5 Roe deer were also counted on the way home in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

Road birding can be interesting!

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