Stanton Park Wood

Having overdone Coate Water recently, I decided on a visit to the Feeding Stations at Stanton Park Wood. When I arrived the car park was fairly busy with lots of dog walkers making the most of what was a fairly decent day weather wise. In other words it wasn't raining or snowing.  With my bag of Sunflower seeds and corn it was off to the logs which are just opposite the feeders, a couple of hundred meters or so up the track from the main car park.

Looking back towards the main car park

The Feeder on the left and the Logs on the right. The car park is behind me.

There weren't too many birds on the feeders when I arrived, which was good for me. It meant any food I placed on the logs was going to be sought after fairly quickly. And true enough a Robin was down on the log within seconds. Its funny how they always seem to be the first on the scene. The next bird was a Blue Tit, followed by Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock and a female Blackbird. After that it was a frenzy of activity, with tits squabbling over the sunflower seeds and a pair of Robins squaring up to each other. A Nuthatch gave a brief appearance but was more interested with the food on the main feeder, as were the Long-tailed Tits.

Robin

Blue Tit

Marsh Tit

Chaffinch (male)

Dunnock

Blackbird (female)

Locally I heard my first Treecreeper of the year; but I just couldn't locate it. It was calling well but on what tree, who knows. High up in the canopy there were at least a dozen or so Siskins, with at least 3 males singing very loudly. Occasionally one male would break away from the flock and chase off another male. On one occasion a pair dropped down onto a small tree. They were within a few feet of  me next to the logs, but before I could get my camera on them they were gone. I did manage to photograph them high up in the canopy, but the quality of the photo is not great.  Another record shot as they say, but having said that you can just about see the yellow underside and fork tail.

Two Siskins high up in the canopy, hence the poor quality and image size. 

Other birds heard and seen were Great Spotted Woodpecker hammering away at a tree close by, a Bullfinch calling, a few Goldfinches overhead and a drake Mallard on the small pond half-way up the track. Where incidentally there seemed to be a lot of amphibians coming up to the surface for air. I'm guessing they were Newts, but I'm not a hundred percent certain.


Birds recorded, with numbers seen were:
1 Mallard, 2 Woodpigeon, 1 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, 1 Wren, Dunnock, 3 Robin, 1 Blackbird, 2 Coal Tit, 8 Great Tit, 5 Blue Tit, 3 Long-tailed Tits, 1 Nuthatch, 1 Treecreeper, Goldfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 1 Bullfinch and 12+Siskin (20 Species Recorded)