Newts and the beginnings of a new garden list.

Noot much birding or ringing for me over the last couple of weeks as we start the renovation work on our new house! First job was to replace the old rotten shed with a new one and in doing so we found these small newts beneath one of the rotten floor panels. Smooth newts?

As there is no pond in the garden they must have come from one of the ponds in the adjacent fields. These ponds are also home to Coot & Moorhen which can be seen from one of the upstairs windows.

A Little Owl has paid several visits, at dusk, calling from the roof! When we first saw the house one of the things I remarked on was the lack of birds in the garden - despite the amount of cover. I've put up a couple of feeders and now we have a flock of at least 30 Goldfinches visiting along with a few Chaffinches and House Sparrows. A Raven is a regular visitor to the cattle feeding troughs in the field opposite as is a Grey Wagtail so things are definitely looking up!

We can see Moel Famau in the distance so may be its time to start scoping for Black Grouse..............
There's been a good passage of Meadow Pipits and a few Skylarks overhead and the new garden list is now up to 51 species and we haven't even moved in yet! I'm pretty hopeful we'll get Barn & Tawny Owl and theres always the migrants next spring.