This morning was overcast but mild, with very little wind, which is always a bonus :-) I spent 3 hours out from 07:15hrs, visiting the lakes and Scrubby Woods mostly, with just a brief look around the farmland areas.
Only the regular crew of MUTE SWAN, COOT, MALLARD and MOORHEN were on the lakes, but the KINGFISHER was seen well more than once, it came within feet of me at one stage, alighting on a perch for all of 2 seconds before realising I was there and darting off again :-)
It was good to see a party of 6 BULLFINCH in the Scrubby Woods, where COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, BLUE and GREAT TIT were all seen feeding together in a loose flock, below them on the woodland floor, at least 5 REDWING flew up.
Another SNIPE was seen this morning, it flew up from the Ashes Lane Field, always a good species to see here. Over at Migrant Alley a dozen BLACK HEADED GULLS were on one of the paddocks, while the sheep pasture had at least 250 STARLINGS feeding on it, along with 64 ROOKS.
The hedgerow that borders the sheep pasture and Greenhouse Grounds had 5 YELLOWHAMMERS feeding alongside it, fewer than the dozen seen last week, but still represents a good total for this species on the much impoverished farmland here. Just the male KESTREL was observed hunting around the Greenhouse Grounds today, the only raptor seen on my visit.
Later this afternoon, after another check of the lakes, where nothing had turned up, I did some garden bird watching where I recorded 21 species at my feeders and in the garden generally, such delights as Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Coal Tit, WREN, and SONGTHRUSH joined the regulars, even though the SPARROWHAWK made a few failed hunting attempts. The most numerous species were the GOLDFINCHES (peak of 22 counted) and BLUE TIT ( peak of 18), it was nice to see 4 HOUSE SPARROWS visit briefly too :-)
Very frustrating to have all that birding activity just meters away, but no light to photograph them by!!
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