19th February - Garden Moorhen

On Sunday morning we had got up fairly early ready to go out for the day when I was just putting my shoes on an glanced out of the kitchen window to see a Moorhen in all its glory, walking across the back garden lawn. To put it into context I have a fully walled back garden in the middle of a suburban housing estate without any ponds. This bird has in fact spent the entire winter away from water beneath a bird feeder a couple of streets away. I wasn't expecting it to make its way into my garden though! The bird was feeding on dropped seeds beneath my feeding station and is the first Moorhen I have seen in the garden itself.

Nocturnally Moorhens in flight are very common over the garden, with at least one a night from March to June. Once I get my Noc-Mig gear up and running for the year in March I will start recording them again calling overhead. Its a miracle this bird has survived the various cats, boy racers and other suburban hazards away from water for so long. So fair play I will keep putting grain out for it, if it can beat the Woodpigeons to it.