A try out at Whitemoor Haye 7th Feb

7th Feb 2012
After reading an interesting blog from the AlrewasBirder I decided to try out Whitemoor Haye for myself. Some good birds have been seen there that I find difficult to add to my yearlist, so I headed out with the hope of bumping into someone that can point me in the right direction. That's exactly what happened and within 10 minutes we were watching a Little Owl staring straight back down the scope towards us! Great bird and in bright sunshine too. Further down the road were a nice flock of Tree Sparrow and the years first Yellowhammer looking resplendant in the afternoon sun. After an interesting wander round the lanes in roughly a square block, we had added Lapwing and Golden Plover, Fieldfare, tons of Mute Swans and lots of commoner birds. We got back to the car and drove down towards the Little Owl with the intention of grabbing some photos through the scope. However in typical birding style the little devil had buggered off but I received the third year tick in the form of two Grey Partridge sitting hunkered down in the grass right next to the car! The only bird that I REALLY wanted to see was the local Merlin that was regularly seen around Sittles Farm. After a quick look it was getting towards teatime and with the light slowly fading we headed home. As we drove along the lanes past the Gliding Club the Merlin flew across the road in front of the car and kept low over the fields the come to rest in the hedgerow. Amazing! I never would have thought that I would have been so lucky to get four year ticks, pity I couldn't get any photos though!!