Unexpected

After giving up on my Teesside University list since I have only added two species since october, today I made an unexpected addition. Two Drake Mallards were sitting amongst the bushes in the car park behind the libary.

With no source of water on campus I can only think that they have come from the pond in front of MIMA art gallery which is not that far away,or they have come from the other side of the river. I also had a Cormorant fly over.

Maybe I will add a few more species to the list before the year ends, I should also check the MIMA pond surely it's overlooked.

Red Rain

On Wednesday at around 8 I was walking from the Library to my room when I added another species to my campus list – Redwing.
It was drizzling lightly and almost pitch black but still I could hear what must have been around 100 calling as they flew overhead in the darkness.
It just made me wonder how many people walk around completely oblivious to this huge annual migration.On Thursday morning I was woken up to the sound of a Grey Wagtail, which was running around the car park outside, another new campus bird.

Tawny Tick

Last night whilst walking back from the pub I heard the unmistakable sound of a Tawny Owl which called constantly from 10:50 until 10:55.
I could not locate the bird but I presume it was in a row of trees which border the football pitch.
This was my 13th campus bird and one I really never expected to hear or see.
Even when I got back to my room I could still hear it calling.
I was going to try and walk along the tree row tonight but the rain has but me, and probably the owl off.

Around the campus and YSP

Before moving into my new home on campus at Teesside University, I made my self a three year target to try and see 50 species, (including flyovers), on campus.
Already I am on ten. The tenth being 20 Pink Footed Geese which flew over this morning.
A large flock of House Sparrow at Woodland row had a Dunnock amongst them yesterday and the other eight are residents,they are:
BH Gull
Pied Wagtail
Starling
Blackbird
Feral Pigeon
Magpie
Carrion Crow

I have explored most of the site and there is a good number of trees and bushes which I will be checking most days.

Today I went on a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park at Wakefield.
Apart from the dodgy pornographic Rabbit sculptures I enjoyed just wandering around the huge site doing some birding and drawing - does it get any better?
The site is too vast to explore in the time we had so instead I did a quick scan along the main field up to the bridge, before staying at a deserted pond behind an empty building.
Good numbers of Robin and Blackbird were everywhere as were Grey Squirrels, unfortunately.
In total I heard six different Nuthatch but it was difficult to see what was up the lake as access is only available from the country park a mile away.

Whilst drawing at the small abandoned pond I was suprised to see 7 Moorhen climbing around a patch of reeds only about two metres wide.
As well as the Moorhen, 3 Mallard were on the water and 4 Mistle Thrushes were on the egde of the bank.
A Grey Wagtail which had been calling for some time finally landed and spent five minutes hopping from reed to reed before landing on a small reed sculpture where it hunted insects.
It soon moved from the sculpture and instead began hunting from a more modern day sculpture - an empty Fosters can.

All in all I had an enjoyable day at a site I would recommend to anybody who is passing, just for the nature if nothing else.
Also I noticed the amazing Autum colours which have taken hold of the trees dramatically over the last few days, well down here anyway.