Brambling ,green sandpiper and linnets.

 Local birding today. First venue was Askham Bog.

I followed my usual routine of putting bird food on top of some fence posts. However today there was not the usual rush of birds to feed.

Several robins, including this one that was so close I could have caught it. Blue, great and coal tits, dunnocks, blackbirds.

Mrs blackbird also came close, will she feed from you hand like the robin does?

Plenty of siskins feeding in the top of the alder trees, but not a lot else. I called in at a supermarket on the way home. After lunch I decided to visit a spot I used to take my children and now my grandchildren to.

It is south of York,near a village called Colton, where the railway lines from London and Leeds join. In the past we used to walk down the lane, listening to yellowhammer and whitethroat, but although it is not the correct time of year, the alterations to the railway line have changed the habitat.

Now there is a depot where they keep equipment etc and a lot of hedgerows and grass verge has gone.

It was very cloudy as I set off but in one field I saw 15 golden plover.

In the next field there were 4 brown hares.

I continued my walk along the road

when I saw some small birds in these bushes.

another poor picture, but I think that you might be able to see that one of the birds was a brambling, my first of the year. I had just sent a mesage to my friend Chris and also sent a tweet, when I hear a bird calling and as I looked up a green sandpiper flew overhead, another first for the year.

lots of lichen etc on the bushes and hedgerow. Just before I reached my car I saw a buzzard flying low over a field on my left and it disturbed a flock of linnets, another year tick.

Just my luck, better weather on its way now that I have finished my walk, however 3 year ticks to take me to 109 was a good result.