Dense fog this morning only started to clear around 09:00hrs, so not much was seen before then, just a BUZZARD of note, that flew from the bean crop off High House Lane where most of the FIELDFARES and REDWING had departed - as far as I could tell!

I arrived at the lakes as the fog was lifting, all of yesterdays visitors had left, apart from a GREY HERON, but there was one species there that was most welcome - a male TUFTED DUCK (63), although this is the second one this year, it is a really scarce bird here, much scarcer than the Goosanders! As I watched the Tufted Duck, and what a cracking looking bird it was, I heard the TAWNY OWL hoot from the Scrubby Woods again.

I found most of the scarcer woodland birds on my walk through the Scrubby Woods and Wet Woods, with NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, STOCK DOVE, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and GREEN WOODPECKER all being active, some even singing, as was a MISTLETHRUSH at the Ashes Lane Field, where just two MEADOW PIPIT were found.

The KESTREL pair were knocking about the Greenhouse Grounds and the LITTLE OWL was seen at it's roost tree in the Greenhouse Copse, no Gulls were on the sheep pasture and paddocks of Migrant Alley, just ROOKS and WOODPIGEONS, but a few BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS did fly over, as did a YELLOWHAMMER and a singing SKYLARK.

No photo's again in the poor light, tomorrow looks a better day for the camera, lets hope something poses nicely for it!

There was some promise of brighter skies for today, so off I set for my patch walk, camera in hand, but alas the sky didn't clear until gone 15:00hrs, far too late for me!

I visited the fields and paddocks of Migrant Alley first off today instead of the lakes, hoping for a flyover species to add to the month / year list, but no luck for me today. There were a few bits and pieces to see though, a flock of around 45 Gulls that were on one of the paddocks contained HERRING and BLACK HEADED GULLS mainly, but also there were two COMMON GULLS and a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL with them.

I saw the male KESTREL at the Greenhouse Grounds and the LITTLE OWL at its roost in the Greenhouse Copse as I passed by on my way to High House Lane to check the bean fields there. FIELDFARES were again present on the crop, many hundreds of them, plus a few REDWINGS. The somg from a SKYLARK was heard overhead and a YELLOWHAMMER called from an Oak tree along the lane, which more surprisingly had a TREECREEPER singing from it as well. Two BUZZARDS were present in the trees running through the bean field.

Over on the lakes today it was unusually busy, with 12 CANADA GEESE, 2 GREYLAG GEESE, the feral white farmyard goose, a GREY HERON, the MUTE SWAN pair, the lone COOT, 12 MALLARDS and a few MOORHENS, also, there was a lone female GOOSANDER, which as I waited for some better light to photograph it by, was joined firstly by another female, then a male and female arrived together, I waited for them to get a bit closer and for the light to improve for an hour or so, but neither happened, so I just took some distant shots in the end, a bonus was hearing the TAWNY OWL hoot during my wait   :-)

Two of the 3 female Goosander on the main lake today

The male Goosander today

On the way home I passed through the Ashes Lane Fields, where I heard and saw just one MEADOW PIPIT, plus I watched a party of 4 STOCK DOVES fly into the Wet Woods.

Later in the day I tried to get some garden bird images as the light was trying to improve, but it wasn't quite good enough for nice fast shutter speeds, I took a few shots anyway, very frustrating though!

GOLDFINCH

Nuthatch

STARLING

ROBIN