Back to my roots (actually my celium)

South to SE light wind, some light showers with occasional sunny spells

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report from Jean:

Vis 0700-1000

Pink-footed Goose 1868 north

Canada Goose 4 south

Raven 3 arrived from NE and flew S

Bullfinch 3 south

Goldfinch 40 SW

Meadow Pipit 18 south

Grey Wagtail 3 south

Mistle Thrush 1 SW

Chaffinch 31 south

Pied Wagtail 15 SE

Skylark 1 south

Linnet 2 south

Tree Sparrow 3 south

Ringing

Sadly no Yellow-browed Warbler 😢

New birds:

Wren 5

Robin 3

Chiffchaff 7

Song Thrush 1

Dunnock 3

Greenfinch 11

Goldfinch 9

Chaffinch 4

Goldcrest 1

Long-tailed Tit 1

Retraps:

Great Tit 1

Wren 1

Robin 1

Dunnock 2

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report from John:

Three nets set this morning, a little breezy and this increased during the morning. Although some birds were attracted by mp3 players to the nets, there was no other obvious overhead movement apart from groups of Pinkfeet travelling north.

Birds caught included a Grey Wagtail, which was originally colour ringed here last September, two new Cettis Warblers and a Tree Sparrow. Just 22 birds were caught and they comprised :

Goldcrest            x 4

Grey Wagtail       x 4

Meadow Pipit      x 4

Cettis Warblers  x 2

Blue Tit             x 2

and singles of ; Reed Bunting, Wren, Pied Wagtail, Long-tailed Tit, Tree Sparrow and Robin

I had a walk around early afternoon and I don't think I've ever seen/heard so little in a walk around the reserve (MD)

Mute pair plus 7 cygnet 

Gadwall 6

Moorhen 4

Heron 1

No warblers seen or heard

And not much else really. This is quite a nice clip of a Long-Tailed Tit

South shore - high water 17:30 (MD)

I went to see if there were any interesting waders on the shore, but the wind had dried the mud, so just a small group of Knot and Dunlin along the waterline 

Shelduck 47

No Linnet on or around the saltmarsh again, but there was a flock of 32 Goldfinch on the foreshore, they set off south once, but circled back again.

Rock Pipit 1 on saltmarsh 

Skylark 1 on the foreshore, close to previous sightings. Not so windy today so it was happy to rest on the rubble. I don't normally post clips when nothing happens, but thought this one was quite engaging. It clearly knew I was there, but wasn't overly fussed.

Just out of the recording area - Potts Corner

Report from Mark Jones (although these birds were seen from just south of the recording area, most, if not all will have passed through/over it)

Big passage of pied wagtails and meadow pipits heading south, lots of pink footed geese heading north this morning too. 

Also had a stonechat passing through this morning.

Finally, Jean spotted this Fly Agaric on Heysham Nature Reserve (alongside the top path just past the kissing gate)

Fly Agaric

This is what today's title refers to. My first memory of being interested in nature, is me (Malcolm) as a young boy, walking through the bluebell woods in Lancaster (every wood seemed to be called "the bluebell wood"), with my i-spy Fungi book in hand, searching for one of these. They have to be the archetypical "Toadstool". I never did find one, so I'll check out this one tomorrow, it should be opened further.

A blast from the past!
For those of you from post decimalisation 1/- is one shilling, 5 pence now.