I should have realised it was gonna be a poor afternoon's birding. After 5 hours of glorious sunshine this morning, the cloud came over as soon as I left work, and it was raining on and off by 15:00hrs. Sometimes I get really peed off, there was also disturbance at the lake area, the tree nursery and Migrant Alley!
Anyway, before greenie starts telling me to gat back on the happy pills, lets take a look at the positives for the day.............
1) It's now light in the morning on the way to work, hurrah, more birding time!

2) It stays lighter longer in the evening now, hurrah, more birding time!

3) I saw a CORMORANT fly over the lake area, hurrah, a new species for the month

4) I saw both MAGPIE and CARRION CROW carrying nest material today, hurrah, spring is coming!

I'm sure i'll get a few more days like today between now and and the coming of the first spring migrants, lets hope they aren't too frequent.

On the 'Big February bird Count' front,I managed to find PIED WAGTAIL late yesterday afternoon, it was feeding on the small paddocks to the front of my house. Nothing added today however, I'm hoping to add afew more over the month, 40 seems a good target.
One thing I noticed while scanning from the bedroom window, was a eucalyptus tree that was fruiting, it had loads of berries on it, now, does anyone reckon Waxwings like eucalyptus berries ? No jokes about waxwings with colds please !

After yesterdays apalling weather, this afternoons walk was very wet and muddy, so much so I had to wear my wellies - not my favourite footwear for walking. I headed out to the wet woods and lake area via the small holding, but spent alot of the time watching where I was walking, as the paths had become waterways lined with thick mud. Just before the small holding is a crater, about the size of a tennis court, and 7-8 feet deep. This is where the run off from a big greenhouse collects, today it was full up and overflowing - something Ive never seen before, alas though, there was just a pair of MALLARDS on it, sometimes I record the odd Teal or even Mandarin Duck on it.
In the wet woods I spent time just walking from spot to spot, stopping and listening. Here I did recored a TEAL, a pair in fact, one more for the months list. Up in the tree tops there were 40 - 50 SISKIN feeding in Alders, and on another of my stop and watch sessions I found a group of 3 GOLDCREST, and 2 COAL TIT, but in all it was generally a quiet. Over at the lake area, I was confident of getting something interesting in, the lakes were full to overflowing, but my confidence was ill placed, just MALLARD and half a dozen CANADA GEESE were found, still, the geese aren't always there! I suppose the gas cannon giving a double blast every 20mins, across the other side of the woods, doesn't help much either. A couple of NUTHATCH flew over from the nearby garden feeders, as did a few more Siskin, nothing else of note though.
I made my way over to Migrant Alley, passing through the tree nursery, where work was being carried out, nothing to see there, but I did check up on the Barn owl - still not home :-( Migrant alley was full of winter thrushes again, mostly a few hundred FIELDFARE with smaller numbers of REDWING. A KESTREL flew low over, and 20 or so Fieldfare ''escorted'' it out of the area, but a few seconds later the PEREGRINE'S first appearance this month got a different response - panic-. However the birds soon realised the peregrine wasn't in hunting mode, and they watched from the relative safety of the hedgerow until the coast was clear. The only other birds of note on the stubbles was a flock of around 40 - 50 LINNETS.

Above: Fieldfare waiting for the peregrine to go away! Below are some pics of the Kestrel being 'escorted' from the parish.