The weather was not too bad again this afternoon, in fact, it was better than some of the days we had back in July !  Warm and windless with a few sunny spells, very unlike November weather  :-)

I made the walk over to the tall hedge at Migrant Alley first off, and deposited some more wheat grain around the base of the hedge, but today as I approached, there were just 2 YELLOWHAMMER and a CHAFFINCH, I hope my efforts come to more than that!

As yesterday, I made my way over to check out the Lakes, via the Tree Nursery, in which the 20 or so MEADOW PIPITS were still about, they were trying to outwit the KESTREL that was sitting up on the telephone pole watching them. I made a point of scanning the adjacent Pub Field whilst there, but there weren't any Lapwings or the Buzzard today, only BLACK HEADED GULLS.

I spent the rest of the daylight hours around the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, the Lakes had a CORMORANT keeping the MALLARDS and MOORHEN company today, but still nothing more exciting than that  :-(  In the woods however, it was positively buzzing, I found GREAT TITS, COAL TIT,  BLUE TITS, CHAFFINCH, GOLDFINCH, BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, REDWING, BLACKBIRDS and SONGTHRUSHES all in close proximity, they were mostly congregating around a large Hawthorn bush, the fact it was receiving the suns rays, and was full of berries made it a natural stop for them, but try as I might I never got a decent chance of a photo, although the Goldcrest (below) did move nearer into an Elder for me, but it was much shadier here.

Goldcrest

A SPARROWHAWK didn't take long to turn up on the scene, whizzing through at high speed, but after the initial panic, the birds soon returned to their foraging. A few flyovers were noted whilst I was in the woods, FIELDFARE, SISKIN, LESSER REDPOLL and HERRING GULLS, but not the hoped for Canada Geese, they are just about the only certainity to join the November list that I have yet to record.

In the dying light, I spotted a moth fly across my path and alight on a nettle, no idea what it is, i'll leave that to Greenie and Dean, any ideas guys  ?

Unidentified Moth......Now identified as not a moth at all, but a Caddis fly  :-)  Thankd Dean, Alan and Greenie!

At last the weather has cheered up! The cloud broke and some decent sunny periods were had for my afternoon patch visit, the first thing I did was take some more wheat over to the tall hedge at Migrant Alley, where the KESTREL was again up hunting, and a FIELDFARE gave some decent views as it tried to hide in the leafless Hawthorn bush. As I approached where I had scattered yesterdays wheat, I heard the familiar trilling of YELLOWHAMMERS,  5 had found the wheat already, what a good start! I hung around for a few minutes to see if I could get a photo of them but they were far too wary for that.

Fieldfare

I then made my way over to the Lakes, via the Tree Nursery, where there were at least 20 MEADOW PIPITS flitting about in the shrubs. Over at the lakes, a GREY HERON had joined the MALLARDS and MOORHENS, but nothing new 'duckwise' was found. I searched the surrounding area and Scrubby Woods, and came across a feeding flock of NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, they all fed in the same Oak tree, which made it convenient for some attempted photo's, although it was a bit dark under the trees.

Nuthatch

Treecreeper

I missed the getting the Goldcrest photo, it was just too quick  :-)  I got a bit carried away with the time during the first photography session in days, and I realised the sun was fading fast, I wanted to get over to the Pub Field before it was too dark so to check for Lapwing, so had to move on. I was very pleased to find 30 plus LAPWING on the seedling grass Pub Field when I arrived, along with 23 BLACK HEADED and 7 HERRING GULLS, I carefully scanned the field in case there was a Golden Plover about, but it wasn't a plover I found, it was a COMMON BUZZARD! The Lapwing and Gulls seemed to tolerate the Buzzard, so long as it stayed on the floor, but when it took off, so did everything else! It was growing very dim by now, but from my hiding place I watched the Buzzard alight at the top of a pine tree, quite far off. I was in the wrong light for photo's but I quite like the effect  :-)

Buzzard in the dying light

Then off it went

It came towards me for short while, then veered off, fantastic birds!!