Guestling Wood
29th December 2006, FridayA Mistle Thrush, greeting the promised “sunny interval†(duration: 7 minutes) with a burst of song was the only sound this morning, other than quarrelling squirrels and isolated small contact notes from poor numbers of woodland birds.
A consistent background noise, however, came from Church Farm, where a clattering yellow digger dredged root-tangled silt from a neglected old pond, ringed by bright orange alder stumps.
At another recently rehabilitated pool, I was most surprised to find a drake Pintail. The habitat seemed much too enclosed, and although the bird was full-winged and cautious, I’m not sure it was truly wild. Apart from that, the only bird of interest was a Water Rail in the old reedbed.