Tönn is back!
After a generally rather warm autumn, with just the one localized cold spell, there has up until now been little to drive northerly-based birds south, towards us. However, their ‘biological clocks’ are not to be denied, and northern species have started to trickle down to our warm corner as I write. Not least of them is ‘Tönn’
– the Estonian-bred Greater Spotted Eagle, sporting a radio transmitter, that has now spent some eight winters around El Hondo, having each year made the perilous journey across over-hunted France, over the Pyrenees, and so on down to our marshlands, where he has favourite trees on which to perch, and plenty of food – small mammals, birds and carrion being favoured. On the first day I saw Tönn upon his return, I was also pleased to see the first winter flocks of Skylark in the Vistabella fields, Meadow Pipits also in evidence nearby. Coincidentally, several people have contacted me about birds they have seen on their gardens for the first time. Newcomers to our area are always surprised and puzzled by the attractive Black Redstart, which is a very common winter resident in our gardens and parks. The male, in particular, is a very pretty bird. Less obvious, but still a nice, delicate little bird, is the Chiffchaff, and Blackcaps are also often in evidence. You don’t have to travel far to see raptors, with Buzzard and Marsh Harrier always available, and the chance of a stray Peregrine or Merlin on the cards. Cranes are in the country, many thousands having passed their regular staging post at Gallocanta, so they too are to be looked out for.