Winter Walk at Trecarrell

Nine hardy souls met at Trecarrell despite the wind and the rain. 

We made our way to a viewing point overlooking the big pond. Two male Goosanders had flown in about ten days previously, they were very white. Neil had not seen males with so little black on them and also their chests looked quite yellow. We observed mallard, moorhen and a cormorant. The piggery, now housing calves, was the best place to observe the birds unobtrusively and in the dry. 

The goosanders, in particular, are very nervous of people. The two white dots in the picture below are proof! (Alison hopes to return with the group's camera on a drier day to take a good picture!)

The fodder beet field, to look for evidence of harvest mice, was our next area of interest.  At that point the weather became worse and it proved futile trying to identify the small flocks of birds disappearing into the fodderbeet.. If there had been any nests of harvest mice, we decided, they could well have been washed away.

We then trekked across the high ridge of the farm seeing buzzard, redwing and or fieldfare, skylark and starlings,  before dropping down through a wooded area to the lowest of the three ponds. A skull was found and Alison has since identified it as a  lamb's skull, but it was thought it could have been a deer. We headed back up the valley to the big pond skulking behind a hedge as we got close but the birds soon noticed us and took flight. All except the cormorant who carried on fishing. 

The hot drinks and cake rounded off the afternoon and we all felt it had been worthwhile despite the weather. Our thanks to Ruth and Neil for making us very welcome.