Comimg out of Crowland last night heading torwards Peterborough and I briefly caught in my headlights a Heron in the still hunting for prey!Has anyone else seen Herons hunting at night?

No, but I have seen them following a tractor which was ploughing a field. Birds feeding at dusk or later is a sign that they have not found enough to eat during the hours of daylight. I guess its usual prey (fish) were under a layer of ice and therefore inaccessable.

Good point about the ice and the fact that the Heron cant get to the fish.

Me and mine were telling you about the Great Spotted Woodpecker visits. Well I caught it on video this morning at the fat feeder. This was purely opportunistic (handheld) and on a very long lens (30:1), it's over 100 feet away, which explains why there is some camera shake and some loss of quality.

You can see the video on YoutTube at:



News Flash:

Coming very soon, a new improved forum. More features, bug fixes and stuff, and video embedding!

Super vid of a brilliant bird! Well done.

I was driving on the A605 just west of the A1 around midday today when I saw two red kites. One was trying to pick up some roadkill and the other was wheeling over the bushes at the side of the road. Fantastic sight! I wish I could have stopped but we were on our way to return son #3 to university and wanted to be back before the snow started (again). These birds have an enormous wing span, really dramatic looks and are a real treat to see.

About two years ago I went with a frind to Fine Shade Wood near Corby to see the Red Kites. We spent the entire day wandering around the woods and the local footpaths and did not see one. So we left Fine Shade having had a fruitless search, but a very nice walk, and headed home.

Just off the A47 I spotted at least 6 Red Kites fighting over a carcass! A typical days bird watching for me. I will see more travelling to and from a site then I ever see at the site.

We had a visit from a beautiful pair of Bullfinches this morning. They hung around for about twenty minutes before flying off. They were both in very fine condition, the males red chest stood out against the snow and his mates blue grey chest was quite a contrast. They came within a few feet of the window so we got a good close up view of them. Our first time of seeing Bullfinches since we moved here 6 years ago. My first sighting of a female as I'd only ever seen males before.

Nice to hear about those Red Kites Lion Andy. And the Bullfinches from Pensioner.

Reporting my first ever sighting of a Blackcap. It was at one of our fat feeders. It was a male. The local male chaffinch took exception to it, but it managed to come back a few times for a good feed.

Watching our bird feeders last weekend it occured to me that I'm now seeing a lot of goldfinches, a bird that was once never seen.

And I no longer see Green Finches.


Has the rest of Crowland seen the disappearance of Green Finches?

We've also had about 14 goldfinches around for some months now. No Greenfinches and even our little flock of Sparrows that lived in the hedge at the bottom of the garden have gone missing since all the snow.
A pair of Bullfinches appear every now and then, which is a treat.