Mr 10 Percent

After demolishing more spare ribs last night than I thought humanly possible in one sitting, I thought it best to stretch my pegs a little this morning, so I had a walk along the River Dee between the Higher Ferry and Queensferry bridges.

Pancake flat – presumably reclaimed – arable fields flank the east side of the river here, whilst the west side of the channel plays host to several industrial complexes. All this combined with the arrow straight canalised river creates a fairly austere environment that I have to say I will be in no hurry to revisit!

Nevertheless, the farmland in particular at least provided me with the opportunity to bag some birds for my Flintshire list that favour this type of environment – notably species such as Yellowhammer, Tree Sparrow, Grey Partridge and Stock Dove. I had also been given some fairly specific instructions as to the location of Little Owl too.

As it turned out, the agricultural practices of the farms didn’t exactly look like they were sympathetic to wildlife, but aside from the usual corvids there were a few modest flock of Lapwing and eventually a quartet of Stock Doves too.

The Afon Dyfrdwy (well it is technically in Wales here!) however was a little more productive than I had anticipated playing host to Grey Wagtail, Little Grebe, good numbers of Redshank, and last but by no means least – a Kingfisher near the Airbus dock.

After Becks had become a little irritated at having to keep dodging members of a rather sprawling geriatric dominated pelaton we decided to about face and go and search for the Little Owl.

I had been warned he was a little on the shy side and that my chances of seeing him were no more than one in ten. Hardly great odds, but given that I think I may struggle for Little Owl in Flintshire, worth a shot.

The tree that is his regular haunt I found with little difficulty, but all too predictably Mr 10 Percent was nowhere to be seen…

River Dee 19.01.10

Kingfisher 1
Little Grebe 1
Wigeon 3
Redshank 30
Cormorant c15
Grey Heron 2
Buzzard 4
Kestrel 1
Stock Dove 4

Until later.