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winters tale A smallish area of four fields, covered in frost on a glorious, crisp, sunny winters day. A flock of 20 Fieldfares fly cackling overhead, whilst a high pitched 'zeet' betrays the presence of a few Redwings. We walk along the edge of one of the fields, past a Silver Birch woodland, interspersed with Pines, when suddenly a large raptor flies out of the trees and is instantly identifiable as a Buzzard. A little further, a load croak overhead, and two Ravens fly over the trees. Majestic fliers for such large birds, they need all their aerial skills as a large Peregrine appears as if from nowhere, and starts to dive bomb them. Later, we see the Ravens again, on the ground, glowing iridescent in the sunlight, and we also have fabulous close views of the Peregrine as it stoops, screaming, on prey, seemingly oblivious to our presence. So far, we have seen several small flocks of Pink-footed Geese, not large, numbering no more than 100 birds in total. However, when we reach the crest of a small rise, a huge flock of at least 3,000 geese take to the air in the distance, and as we watch, fly right over our heads, with deafening calls, the majority flying away into the distance, but a few landing on the fields behind us. We follow the perimeter of the fields and are now more or less heading back to our starting point. As we go, we are following a ditch, from which Snipe are constantly rising. Now we are getting close to the Pink-feet that landed, so we walk with care, almost crouched in an effort to avoid disturbing them. We can't resist a quick look though, and as we stop all their heads go up, immediately revealing a white faced bird which can surely only be a White-fronted Goose. Soon the geese begin to relax, and start feeding again, and now we can see that the white faced bird is indeed a White-front, with black barred belly, and not only that, it is clearly the pale European race. We head back to our car, well satisfied, past the field where we saw Montagus Harrier and Clouded Yellow butterfly last spring, where the Lapwings, Corn Buntings, Skylarks, Snipe and Yellow Wagtails breed. Where is this wonderful place? It is the
moss lands near Rainford, St. Helens, in January 2001. |
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