Needing to see further than my nose!!

It’s strange that you so often don’t see what’s right in front of you. This has been brought home to me in the last couple of days. Last Sunday after the bird race check in at the Lynfield hotel (the bird race is another one to write up at some point) whilst we were speaking about what and where someone mentioned that Carrion crows seemed to be establishing them self’s on my road the Stonyhill Rd.. I have seen dark billed crows about the house here and just dismissed them as first year rooks as we have a large flock of rooks and Jackdaws about that likely come over from Binscarth woods. Yesterday though there was one on the roof that caught my eye. I got the bins on it and was thinking that the bill didn’t look straight and pointy and had a nice curve when it took off and headed down the field in the company of a Hooded crow. They both landed on fence posts about a hundred yards away and look like a pair. So after managing to see what was in front of my nose all the time I am now seeing at least one Carrion crow around the house. In fact I think the bird is taking the piss a bit as its been on and off the Hydro pole next door all morning.. I don’t really know how many Carrion crows are this far north and out of their range but I can think of a couple of Hoodie/Carrion pairs that have been out west over the past few years. Looks like there might be more inter breeding going on here as well….We will see……now I am paying a bit more attention that is !!

The good thing about this is its another bird on the garden list, and whilst on the subject of the list it’s a super flat calm day and looking down to the loch I can see in the bins Cormorants clearly drying them selfs on a small island. Spurred on by this a scope across the still water soon reveals not only the Cormorants with wings outstretched but a flock of Tuffted ducks clearly visible, several pairs of Golden eye and a Slavonian grebe. Im fairly chuffed with the morning so far…..I might even go and write up a bit of a report on last Sundays bird race as it was my first ever attempt at bird racing!!