Thursday 1 December 2016

There was another hard frost this morning, but it was pleasant out in the sunshine with no wind to speak of.

Being the first day of the new month, I undertook a full patch walk, but only 38 species were recorded during the fours hours, a very poor tally. Here's what was seen in the order of appearance;

Leaving home and turning into ashes Lane, the first species to be recorded were, STARLING, WOODPIGEON, JACKDAW, HOUSE SPARROW, CARRION CROW a flyover BLACK HEADED GULL and a BLACKBIRD. Entering the Small Holding Area I found BLUE TIT, ROBIN, WREN, SONGTHRUSH, CHAFFINCH, REDWING, FIELDFARE and COLLARED DOVE.

Next up was the Wet Woods, where I added just GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, NUTHATCH and LONG TAILED TIT. The first MAGPIE was seen as I approached the Lakes, which were frozen solid, just a couple of MOORHENS were seen, but around the nearby Scrubby Woods I added, GREAT TIT, GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, JAY, SISKIN, GOLDFINCH, COAL TIT, DUNNOCK, PHEASANT and BULLFINCH for the months tally.

Crossing the Ashes lane Fields and Pub Field, just GREEN WOODPECKER, MISTLETHRUSH and HERRING GULL were seen, all flyovers. The nice sighting of no less than 36 LAPWING was waiting for me on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, among them were a few ROOKS, a SKYLARK flew over, but nothing else was added to the December list until I got to the Greenhouse Grounds, which was heavily disturbed by a work crew, here the KESTREL pair were found, plus PIED WAGTAIL was on one of the greenhouses. The walk across the paddocks and along High House Lane which over looks Bustard Hill, was very quite indeed, not a single species was found for the December list.

Back home, I at least added GREENFINCH for the months tally, two were at my feeders, but it was a poor visit, only made up for by the Lapwing flock.


I took a couple of images from my garden this afternoon to brighten the post, but at this time of year the sun is so low most of my perches are in shade - no good for photography!



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