Tuesday 3 January 2017

Another full patch walk was undertaken this morning, this time in some sunny, but frosty conditions, much better than the gloom of late, it was, however, a shame about the scumbag shooter in some nearby fields, the sound of his shotgun ruined the ambience of the visit.

The four hour walk yielded a reasonable tally of 40 species, of those, BUZZARD (43) joined the year list, one was seen exiting the Wet Woods, also new for the year was a GREY HERON (44), which fished in the last small piece of unfrozen water at the small lake, where a CORMORANT (41) and 3 GOOSANDER (42) had also gathered, two being superb males, the latter two species were also seen here on a short visit to the lakes yesterday afternoon, a visit that also added SPARROWHAWK (39) and LITTLE OWL (40) to the years tally, both being seen at the Small Holding area as I passed through to get to the lakes yesterday. The only other species added to the year list this morning though was STOCK DOVE (45), two flew low over the Ashes Lane Fields.

Other birds of note today were: a KESTREL at the Greenhouse grounds, as per usual  :-), plus the mixed flock of 100 or so REDWING/FIELDFARE at the Ashes Lane Fields, where once again   a few MEADOW PIPITS were seen.

SISKIN, HERRING GULL and BLACK HEADED GULL were the best of the flyover species.

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