I've just spent a couple of nights at my favourite little woodland caravan site. (And no, I'm not going to tell you where it is because then you'll all pile in and it won't be so quiet!) It was lovely and peaceful until about 6am the first morning, when I was woken up by a quacking duck. Right outside the caravan. I eventually had to get up and chase it, whereupon I discovered 4 mallards scooping up the fallen seed from my bird feeder - 3 males and 1 female. I hate to admit it but it was the female making all the noise!
I had lots of birds on the feeders, including siskins and, briefly, a female great spotted woodpecker. Unfortunately she flew off before I could get the camera out. A couple of rooks also had a go at trying to peck the fatballs in the feeder - not easy given that it was hanging from a rather slim branch on a small tree! A whole flock of chaffinches hoovered up anything the ducks had left on the ground while coal tits, blue tits and great tits visited the peanut feeder, along with the siskins. Redpolls had been seen elsewhere on the site but I didn't catch any on my feeders, although there was an unidentified bird which may have been a young redpoll or siskin. Hard to tell - it was mainly brown with streaked underside.
No sign this visit of either red squirrel or pine marten, both of which frequent this particular site. The daffodils were out but the trees still bare - it will all have changed the next time I go. That's the beauty of deciduous woodland.
