Linacre - 26th February 2012

After a lovely walk and a spot of lunch out in Sheffield I decided to pop to down to Linacre for a few hours this afternoon. The temperature was around 10 degrees when I arrived and the sun was out. The first thing I saw was a Pipistrelle Bat flying around the bottom carpark! The mild weather had obviously brought it out of hibernation.

Birdwise it was quite quiet with only a few of the woodland species still singing. The highlight, however, was the 4 Song Thrushes, which included 2 singing birds. Siskins were heard later on and a magnificent Common Buzzard was gliding and flying low over the trees by the bottom reservoir.

On the reservoirs there were 7 Goosanders (3 males and 4 females), 1 Goldeneye, 16 Coots, 8 Moorhens, 38 Mandarin Ducks, 1 Grey Heron, 17 Tufted Ducks, 44 Black-headed Gulls, 54 Mallards, 1 Little Grebe and 1 Great crested Grebe, which was now in full summer plumage.

Goosanders

Whilst walking through the woods this afternoon I spotted this tree carving and thought I'd share it with you. It's the best picture I've got of a Tawny Owl!