Peace returns...

After all of the excitement of yesterday I thought I would visit Maridalen at dawn today hoping that some of the good birds would still be present. Unfortunately the still, sunny dawn that greeted me had ensured that just abiut everything from yesterday had departed overnight. Not a single Teal or rare duck remained, just 20 Goldeneye and the pair of Black-throated Divers. Little else to see either, just a few singing Willow Warblers and a Long-tailed Tit. Mammals were perhaps the highlight with Roe Deer, Fox and Beaver.

A further visit at lunchtime with the family resulted in my first Blackcaps of the year plus a Lesser Redpoll and a Kestrel but the highlights this time were on the reptile/amphibian front with many croaking and spawn laying frogs, a couple of toads and a lizard. The beavers have been very active and felled many trees including this one which held a nesting box used annually by Goldeneyes. Who said Beavers were harmless creatures?

Beaver destruction

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