{"id":4018,"date":"2015-11-30T13:14:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T13:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=4018"},"modified":"2016-02-05T15:54:03","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T15:54:03","slug":"storms-fieldfare-gadwall-wigeon-winter-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/storms-fieldfare-gadwall-wigeon-winter-is-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Storms, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Wigeon: Winter is Here"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Goldfinches\"<\/a>
Goldfinches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A twittering, constantly moving flock of a dozen Goldfinches greeted my arrival at Wraysbury. The wind was already keen and I was glad of my thick fleece and waterproof jacket. A few Wood Pigeons and a Crow or two blew down the wind, hardly needing to flap. Even a Heron, doing its best to flap downwind as usual, rocketed past in the swift airstream. A solitary Fieldfare chattered to me from a bare thorn tree, its chack-chack unmistakable.<\/p>\n

\"Broken<\/a>
Broken Willow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The stormy winds of the weekend had broken several large willows including the big one just North of the bridge: two branches had fallen, cracking off what are now revealed to be fragments of the hollow shell of the trunk. Willows and poplars are dangerous as the trunks are short-lived and often rotten inside: and the fast-growing branches can be very thick and heavy.<\/p>\n

\"Spectacularly<\/a>
Spectacularly rotten hollow willow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This tree by the lake snapped its seemingly solid, reassuringly mossy trunk and fell into the water. It was quite hollow, filled with soft brown beetle frass with finger-thick borings. Notice, however, the bracket fungus near the base.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>
Lake covered in winter wildfowl – Swans, Geese, Gadwall, Wigeon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lake was covered in winter wildfowl, as the Channel at dawn on D-Day was covered with ships. I gave up trying to count the hundreds of Gadwall; there were dozens of Wigeon and Tufted Ducks, and plenty of Mute Swans, Canada Geese and Coots too. A few Cormorants, some with very white bellies, and a Great Crested Grebe or two made up the numbers. As I raised my binoculars, a Kingfisher darted from the near bank and raced right across the lake, perching on the far side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A twittering, constantly moving flock of a dozen Goldfinches greeted my arrival at Wraysbury. The wind was already keen and I was glad of my thick fleece and waterproof jacket. A few Wood Pigeons and a Crow or two blew down the wind, hardly needing to flap. Even a Heron, doing its best to flap … Continue reading Storms, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Wigeon: Winter is Here<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88,6],"tags":[627,709,946,71,657],"class_list":["post-4018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature-reserves","category-wildlife","tag-fieldfare","tag-gadwall","tag-hollow-trees","tag-kingfisher","tag-wigeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4018"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4115,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions\/4115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}