WINDMILL HILL AVEBURY

I joined a group of birders from a U3A group this afternoon for one of their fortnightly walks, this time it was to Avebury and a walk to  nearby Windmill Hill. 

After meeting in a very overcrowded NT car park we took a path which led us along a quiet back lane and up a track past farmland. 

We logged the usual common birds on the way but our main destination was to  locate an area where tree sparrows are encouraged to breed by local farmers using feeding stations and nest boxes. After strolling along for an hour or so we reached some hedgerows where we could see long feeding tubes, at first many of us mistook them for fence posts in the hedgerow, but a closer look showed us otherwise and we soon realised that these were being frequented by a range of finches and hedgerow birds including tree sparrows, chaffinches, goldfinches, green finches and yellow hammers. We could see dozens of tree sparrows and at least a dozen yellow hammers brightening up the hedgerows.

It was becoming slightly chillier as we made the return trip to our cars, but the afternoon had been an interesting one with beautiful weather and a further couple of ticks for my year list!