What a joy it was to be out walking in the sunshine on Saturday. A good selection of birds was seen during my 2 hour walk. Down through Kirkins and the maize stubble seems to be attracting lots of corvids, about 140 consisting of a pretty even split of Jackdaws and Rooks. The hedgerow held a few House Sparrows and Chaffinches plus a pair of Reed Buntings and five Fieldfare flew from the apple trees in the top corner.
As I neared the pumping station a Mistle Thrush sang from an oak a bit further along the lane. Two Goldrcrests were foraging in the ivy covered willow next to the station.
The orchard next to the lake held a mixed flock of Fieldfares(25), Redwings(14) and Starlings(200). As I neared the southern end I could hear a Reed Bunting singing and soon found him in a lakeside alder.
All three Woodpeckers could be heard drumming but the lake held just Mallard, Moorhen and a lone Great- crested Grebe until a Kingfisher appeared and landed in a tree in the corner.
A pair of Canada Geese flew over accompanied by a Greylag. Interestingly this trio have been on the lake a couple of weeks ago and the Greylag appeared to be pairing with one of the Canadas.
Around the other side of the lake and the highlight of the morning appeared in the shape of a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. Such delightful little birds. Unfortunately I got just one(iffy) shot of the female before they disappeared into the alder wood.

Female Lesser Spot

In total 43 species were seen with a nice pair of Grey Wagtails bringing up the rear as I left the lake.

In the afternoon I had the good fortune of a Peregrine(67) over the garden when I was repairing the the fence which had blown down during the spell of horrid weather we have just endured. Every cloud has a silver lining!

JANUARY TO 12th FEBRUARY 2014

I can't believe it's nearly the middle of February and my patch list has just started to pick up a bit after a rather disappointing January, when only 59 species were seen. At the same time last year the list stood at 72!! This is probably due to my limited walking after the saga of my ankle and the appalling weather.
Still, back to the patch and waiting till 28th December for a Pochard there were 4 records in January with two being seen on the 7th with a Tufted drake.

Pochards.

There seems to be a lot of Redpolls around since last month with a single Common Redpoll(54) with them on the 18th Jan.

Into February and on the 1st of the month there were 2 Common Redpolls with a flock of 45+ lesser Redpolls. The first Woodcock was seen on the same day plus a pair of Greylag Geese.

The 2nd produced a pair of Teal and a Water Rail of note.On Monday 10th, 3 Egyptian Geeese flew S/E over the lake and this morning I had a pair of Grey Wagtails over to bring the years total to 66.

Finally, even though it doesn't seem to want to stop raining, it was great to see some Snowdrops in bloom a week or so ago.

Snowdrops in bloom.