Look at this and look close at the South Eastern Corner, This is a "Proper Winter" but with the scenic shots of snow covered land it is thinking about the affect that this weather is causing to birds..JPG)
"White Out" Today I decided to spend some time walking over the marshes to see if there were any surprises by the recent adverse weather conditions. Walking through the farm land towards Fobbing Barrier.
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All animals and birds are being severely affected by the snow covered land, the ground is rock solid and most water bodies are part or totally frozen.
View of the Creek, being intertidal Vange Creek is providing vital feeding to many birds including, Waders, Gulls and Ducks. Today the Creek held a Ruff which was a most welcome un-seasonal surprise, over 100 Lapwing, Redshank 30+, Curlew 8, Blackwit 6, Teal 20+, Shoveler 1 and 3 Little Grebe.
I had decided that I would spend some time going through the Gulls on the nearby Landfill site, but with such cold conditions I thought I should go well prepared and so I took the shelter, seat, stove and a good supply of Tea and food. I was lucky as a couple of snow showers came in. Sat in the shelter with a fresh brew whilst the snow came in proved its worth.
View of the marshes, I was quite pleased to see that the marsh has gained a lot of water and even the site is frozen solid and covered in snow the areas of water are visible and also the resevoir is holding plenty of water. The site really does look and so it should because it has always been a good site and has been under watched for years. There was a Purple Heron on the sight 02/05/2005.
Passerines were few and far between today with a few Meadow Pipit's, Corn and Reed Buntings, Yelowhammer's, Green Woodpecker, Fieldfares and Redwings with Kestrel and Sparrowhawk ever present.
Gulls on the frozen Reservoir, going through the Gulls on the landfill, the Creeks, the fields and the Reservoir the best I could get was this Med Gull. "You know" I ended today with a stroll over Vange and today for the first time as far back as I can remember I did not hear any Cetti's and who knows, maybe they have been wiped out by this "The big Freeze". Oh and I nearly forgot, The boots were perfect so it was "Sale of the Century"
