Overnight rain left this morning wet, misty, and cool, a bank of dark clouds blotted out any sun, making it seem like an eternity before the morning lightened up. In these conditions it wasn't surprising that for the first hour of the full patch walk not many birds were about, and the species that were to be found were only seen in ones and two's.

One of the KESTRELS was up early at the Greenhouse Grounds though, and flyovers from, SISKIN, LESSER REDPOLL and YELLOWHAMMER were seen as I crossed Migrant Alley to get to the College Grounds, here it was not much better birdswise, but the likes of MISTLETHRUSH, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, JAY, and SONGTHRUSH were eventually found.

I made my way back out across Migrant Alley, through the Pub Field and Tree Nursery, then on to the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, only adding a few flyover HERRING GULLS, two flyover BLACK HEADED GULLS and a PHEASANT to the mornings list as I went.

Things picked up marginally at the lakes and Scrubby Woods, I found a CHIFFCHAFF by the main lake, but little was on the water, just 2 MALLARD, 3 CANADA GEESE and a scattering of MOORHENS, with a KINGFISHER putting in an appearance. A flock of ten Lesser Redpoll flew over the Scubby Woods, as well as a few more Siskin. BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, GOLDFINCH, GREENFINCH, and a BUZZARD that flew from its roost tree made the list up to 39, the fortieth species was REDWING, four were seen flying out of a Hawthorn bush.

Moving on through  the Wet Woods, and the Small Holding, I added GREEN WOODPECKER, and at last a GREAT TIT, which was with a flock of LONG TAILED TITS, 42 species would be a little less than average for an October morning, but I wasn't happy with that, so I went over to the Greenhouse Grounds for another look around there, and what a difference from when I passed through in the darkness three hours earlier, the scrub was teeming with BLUE and Great Tits, WRENS, DUNNOCKS, ROBINS, BLACKBIRDS, Songthrushes, another Chiffchaff, and a female BLACKCAP.  A LITLE OWL called from the Greenhouse copse, while overhead flyovers from GREY HERON, 2 HOUSE MARTIN, 2 SKYLARK and 4 MEADOW PIPIT made up the daylist to 49. As I was deciding to head off home, the months first GREY WAGTAIL (65) flew past, calling like mad, the reason for its manic alarm call was a SPARROWHAWK that came through and sat on the Greenhouses, so the morning ended on 51 species, an excellent haul for such a dark and damp morning.

My camera stayed at home due to the poor conditions, but by midday a window of sunshine was beginning to appear, so I took the opportunity to sit and wait for the Jays to arrive at the garden feeders, here's the resulting photo's of them, plus a Buzzard that flew over my house  :-)

Jay

Jay

Jay

Jay

Common Buzzard

A few Red Admiral Butterflies are still on the wing

This mornings walk into work, in near dark conditions, produced a couple of early rising BUZZARDS, but little else.

This afternoon, after work, I took a walk over to the Lake area, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, little was noted here apart from 4 GREEN WOODPECKERS on a large lawn adjacent to the Small holding. The lakes and Scrubby Woods however were quite busy, I found the first GREY HERON (63) of the month resting in a low bush over one of the small lakes, a scattering of MALLARDS and MOORHENS were as usual also on the water, but no other ducks were with them unfortunately.

I crossed paths with a troop of LONG TAILED TITS while at the Scrubby Woods, and I watched 8 of them pass by me, along with two GOLDCREST, a few BLUE TITS and two COAL TITS, I was sure I heard a Marsh Tit with them, and sure enough, after a bit of a wait, I got short views of my first MARSH TIT (104,64) of the year, in fact the first since April last year. This is a species that only over winters on my patch in ones and twos, and then not every year, so I'm pleased to find it  :-)

At least four BULLFINCH were heard calling from the dense brambles, a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was chased by a SPARROWHAWK, and a KESTREL was also up hunting, flyovers from SISKIN and a lone SKYLARK made up an interesting afternoons visit :-)

The Marsh Tit brings me one species nearer to my goal of 109 species for this year, a tall order now, but not entirely impossible, 5 more new species might just turn up  :-)  the October list is now at 64, which is the joint 5th best out of 11.

Long Tailed Tit

I got home and tried to get some more JAY photo's at my garden Feeders, but they have got very good at avoiding my photographic perch now, and go straight to the peanut stash, fill up and fly off again! I also tried to get some better COAL TIT photo's, but by now the sun had dipped behind the garden wall, and all I got were some more dark shots with long exposures  :-( I'll be back for another try though!

Coal Tit