Maybe it wasn’t wishful thinking after all! Out in the Fauna fields with Oliver and Richard from the RSPB this morning, checking on the leaking pipe in Anna’s Pool and doing some monitoring of the wet areas.
In the top corner of Upper Sowerholme, by the boundary with Flora, was a brown hare. OK, probably not the same one I saw on the Glasson cycle path on Tuesday. Most encouraging to have another – albeit brief – sighting so quickly.
Richard was pleased to see a snipe fly up. He thought that, as it was still around, it could well be breeding in Upper Sowerholme. (This is difficult to verify. Apparently an indicator of breeding snipe is to hear them drumming around dawn or dusk.)
Eagle-eyed Richard also spotted a male wheatear on the edge of the Big Meadow marsh by Loxams’ Pond. He noticed that one of the crows in Fauna has white wings. Has anyone else spotted this unusual coloured bird?
Nothing like two records of the same outing… And yes indeed, the credit for spotting the hare goes to Glenys!
I have seen the crow with the white feathers a couple of times up by the canal at the top of Cromwell Road
Two hares currently grazing next to each other at the top of the field next to Flora – one seems a lot smaller than the other (leveret?).