A change of scenery today,visiting the NNR that encompasses Crowle & Thorne Moors,saw some nice bits being seen in the 8 hours on site.
I started proceedings by parking at the car park at Crowle,getting all the required kit together for the long walk and i was off.
It was fairly quiet,as expected along the first section of the walk,but a nice flock of 27 Lesser Redpoll made for a nice sighting,the largest flock i had seen for a while.
A couple of Buck Roe Deer were seen just before i crossed over the Bailey bridge and into gods own country,the first deer sighting of the day.
Will Pitts scrape held a few birds as always,with 63 Mallard and a gorgeous drake Goosander and in the bushes bird of the visit so far this morning,went to a precious Willow Tit,feeding with a mixed Tit flock.This species is spiralling out of control country wide and much work is required to understand what exactly is causing the decline.
A few more Lesser Redpolls were seen,before I made it to the Limestone Road and Blue Bridge.
A few nice birds around here included the Water Pipit that has been present for a while and was only seen in flight,as is the majority of sightings of this species,but thankfully they are usually quite vocal.
A pair of Stonechat were encountered nearby and added a lovely splash of colour from the dapper male,certainly brightening up this monochrome winter's day.
This was the first pair of a total of 6 birds being recorded during the visit,another additional pair and 2 individual males seen separately.
Much scanning of the surrounding areas as i walked revealed at least 6 different Marsh Harrier,including a smart 1st adult plumaged male(or 3rd calendar year) as some may call it and overhead a flock of 67 Pinks flew west.
it really was a joy to visit here again,with it's solitude and not a soul in sight,time to just be at one with the natural world and watch some great birds.
I eventually made it all the way back to the Crowle side of the NNR and back into Lincolnshire,seeing a Great-spotted Woodpecker and 3 more gorgeous Roe Deer,they really are a fave of mine.
After arriving back at the car and seeing i had walked just under 13 miles today,i travelled home with slightly aching legs,but it had certainly been worth the effort and i look forward to my next visit,hopefully in the not too distant future.
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| Thorne Moors |
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| Thorne Moors. |
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