Mustela vision.

A very confiding Mink was watched as it hunted along the dam this evening. It is such a pity that this alien has caused so much damage to our native wildlife. When I first came to Thornton 24 years ago there were always Water Voles, Arvicola terrestris, at both inflows, but they have disappeared, easy prey for Mink. Dispite the bad press it was still a great animal to watch. Also at the dam were 6 Grey Wagtails. I cannot end this blog without mentioning that Sunday is the anniversary of the Thornton Rosefinch twitch. Ever the optimist , I shall erect a net in Rosefinch ride on Sunday at 9am and you never know!

Webs Count begins.

On the 19th September I completed my first Wetlands Bird survey of a new season. There were no great surprises, although 17 Little Grebe and 40 Great Creasted were notable. 335 Canada Geese, 190 Mallard and 45 Tufted duck were also counted. Also recorded were 1 Gadwall, 1 Shoveler, 1 Kingfisher and 2 Cormorants.
Other recent sightings have included 5 Grey Wagtails on the 4th and 1 Black Tern from the 7th to 9th September. Today(20th), 2 Ravens flew low over the church at 1730.

More from TRWP!

At last a rare sunny day on the 30th and I was again on TRWP duty. A single Swift, Hobby, 3 Buzzards, Kestrel and a Curlew were seen. A Nuthatch was calling and visiting the neighbours feeders. A more unusual visitor to the garden was a single Linnet.
I cannot sign off without mentioning the sad demise of the Thornton Moth Mans blog. It was this site that encouraged me to start my own. It is great to hear about what people are seeing locally, especially areas of Natural History that I know little about. So come on Russ ,don,t abandon your followers.