Report February 06-12 2022

The willow buds are swelling more and more, a Little Owl is singing from the roof of the main house (all night, every night, alas) and those few Reed Buntings that remain in the reedbed are trying out their songs as they get ready to leave.
Spring is coming, that much is evident. The main event this week was a very brief appearance by two Ruddy Shelducks. As soon as they saw me appear on the horizon they took off and never came back. I know this species is usually immediately dismissed as an escape, but these two very wary individual cannot possibly be from the Swiss population that feeds on bread from the hands of tourists. We’ll never be sure, but my money is on a wild origin. The Blue Tits have become abundant, but the commonest small passerines this week were the Siskins. Inconspicuous and usually silent, they hang acrobatically from alder branches to get at the catkins and feed on the tiny seeds they contain.