Wildlife of February
- Harris Brooker
- 5 minutes ago
- 3 min read
February is another quiet month for wildlife in Speyside. Winter is still present, but it’s otherwise beginning to change. The summer visitors are not yet here, yet the temperature is beginning to warm up and the daylight starts to get longer. I went into Inshriach Forest one morning hoping to see Goshawks, as this is a good time of year to see them. There were no Goshawks, but I saw a few Coal Tits flitting about the branches, a Treecreeper and a Great Spotted Woodpecker alighted on a tree trunk and started climbing up it.
A few Woodpigeons flew through the canopy. I have seen Goshawks here in the past, as well as Jays, Buzzards and Crested Tits further into the woodland. There are Crossbills, most likely all three species like Common, Scottish and Parrot could all occur here. There are also Siskins, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long Tailed Tits and Roe Deer.
It had been a while since I’d last been into Inshriach Forest and it appeared as though there were fewer trees on the skyline. I wondered whether some felling had taken place, but when I went up there, there appeared to be no difference at all. In doing so I walked along a forestry track overlooking some trees going downhill and the surrounding floodplain of the River Spey. There are more forests and mountains on the other side, and I have seen a Buzzard and a Goshawk fly against that same backdrop.
This area has at later times of the year produced birds like Common Redstart and Tree Pipit, but this time however there was only a female Bullfinch. It had landed on a larch tree and was feeding on some of the buds. I could hear it making a soft melancholy whistling sound. I think there was more than one present as there appeared to be several soft whistles, but they were hidden.
It’s a sound that can easily go unnoticed if there’s more birdsong and if you didn’t know that was the sound they made, you could easily miss it and think that Bullfinches are harder to find than they are. Indeed, Bullfinches can already be hard to find. They’re not as common as Chaffinches and a great deal of chance is involved. It’s often a species you find when you’re not looking for it. In terms of habitat, coniferous forest, willow forest near wetlands and cherry trees are very popular with Bullfinches and your best chance of seeing them comes from visiting such places.
Nothing else appeared and I went away afterwards, although around where I live saw on two occasions a Sparrowhawk flying around and several Great Tits, Blue Tits and Chaffinches.
I really wanted to see Goshawks on my walk into Inshriach Forest. I’ve been successful twice, but even then only in flight. It would be a dream of mine to one day get a perched bird and watch it at length through my scope, but that could still happen one day. I didn’t see any Crested Tits, Crossbills (of any of the three species), Buzzards and most woodland bird species. Hopefully as the year progresses more things will be around and the Common Redstarts will return and maybe there will be Tree Pipits.
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