With a weekend of snow, Roundball Hill became one of the most popular places in town. The fields beneath Roundball have for generations been the place for sledging, and this weekend was no exception. Dodging a multitude of children of all ages, I made my way up to the woods, admiring the many improvised sledge designs varying from recycling bin covers to old paddling pools.
With several inches of snow the wood looked magical. The white contrasting strongly with the brown of the mud! With the weather so cold I was not expecting to see any wildlife, but was pleasantly surprised. Although singing to defend territory was suspended in the search for food, there was an abundance of birdlife. Long tailed tits, goldfinches and nuthatches were feeding in the trees, and blackbirds, a thrush and a robin were foraging in the ground disturbed by walkers. The resident buzzard was also using one of the trees to watch out for suitable prey.
It is now common to see more birds in and around town than in the countryside and today was no exception. Although you would expect the adventures on the slopes to drive off the birds, the opposite seemed to be the case. In the field below the woods was a large mixed flock of blackbirds, song thrushes and redwings. The birds were making the most of the ground disturbed by sledges and walkers to hunt for earthworms and insect larvae. The redwings are winter visitors from Scandinavia and there is a strong possibility that the blackbirds were also visitors from Northern Europe.
The last time I slid down the hill was on an old fertiliser sack. However as these days my scrapes and bruises take longer to recover, I restricted myself to taking photographs and enjoying the wildlife of all descriptions on Honiton's white, green space.
No comments:
Post a Comment