Atlas practice

Having a bit of the sleeping sickness at the moment due to some vile lurgy that has invaded my body and is devouring my energy. So, too late for the sea I decided on a local round. Also I thought it would be useful to see how easy an Atlas count would be. I did not cover much of the home square in an hour. But it was a good hour. Tree Sparrow, 1; Marsh Tit, 1; Yellowhammer, 8, all good stuff. Then on the edge of the moor I heard a familiar sound.

Hear (sic) they come.

Have a quick look and estimate how many there are (answer tomorrow).

These were up in the air at the same time, nice as well.

Over my head.

Elder stems in autumn evening

Hoverfly on Ivy flowers

The Pink-feet just went due south over my head. 65 Golden Plover got up at the same time.

The bottom two photos are from last weekend to tell the truth - there was a Red Admiral as well but I missed the pic.

Later on I went to Scaling Dam where there were 8 Goldeneye with a drake Goosander (which is an uncommon bird at Scaling). The gull roost was a bit pathetic with just 500 Common Gulls, and half of them flew off, to roost at sea I guess.