Despite the state of the weather today I took a walk up to the orchard in Hayman's Hill this afternoon. It was pretty dire, but was soon brightened up by the discovery of no less than 75 Waxwings(112) in the apple trees and beneath them.
As it was raining heavily I hadn't taken my camera, so I raced home to get it, to at least get a record shot of them. I've attached some pictures of them, even though they are not very good, because of the conditions.

Hopefully they will still be around at the weekend and if the weather is better I might get some better shots.

Some of the flock on overhead wires.

Week ending 16/12/12.

Not too much to get excited about on the patch at the moment with the highlight being 2 Kingfishers, a Water Rail, 140+ Siskins, 3 Lesser Redpolls, 12 Canada Geese, 2 Reed Buntings, Woodcocks and 2 Great Crested Grebes on Sunday.
The orchards are still full of Fieldfares and Redwings and I even had a walk around the orchards in Haymans Hill and found a similar amount of winter thrushes there.

On Saturday, a cracking male Redpoll visited the feeders in the garden. I've only had a handful of records of these in the garden and what a beauty he was!!!
The species list has ground to a halt but I'm hopeful that I could add to it before the year is out.

Managed a walk on Saturday before a dreaded shopping trip to Maidstone. Plenty of Fieldfares and Redwings in the orchard and it was great to find 2 redhead Goosander and 8 Teal on the lake which unfortunately took off as soon as they saw me.
This morning we ( Phyllis and myself) took a walk down to the lake and up to Sprivers. The lake held only the usual Mallards, Moorhens and 3 Great crested Grebes. We found the Little Owl hiding in a hole in the big oak on the dam end and as we walked up through Shirrenden we came across a first  winter male Sparrowhawk trying, unsuccessfully, to catch a Long Tailed Tit. As we walked up the footpath I found a second Little Owl sunning itself on the edge of the little conifer plantation.
In Sprivers we found three more Little Owls and heard another, bringing the Little Owl count to six, quite remarkable!!!
We decided to walk back through the orchards on the east side of the Lamberhurst Road where we found hundreds of winter thrushes and lots of Chaffinches but sadly I'm still waiting for my first Waxwing of the year.

The day started with a heavy frost, just right for a good walk.
The bean stubble in Kirkins still held 30 or so Meadow Pipits and as I walked around the edge I put up a Woodcock.
Down at the lake there wasn't much to be seen from the dam end except the Great Crested Grebes had increased to three. The pair of Gadwall which had been on the lake at 16.00 hours yesterday had disappeared.
The orchards were full of winter thrushes again, which is becoming increasingly frustrating without my scope which is awaiting parts from Japan so that it can be repaired.I spent an hour walking around them trying to get some pictures of them but only managed a few passable shots.

At the southern end of the lake I got a few glimpses of a Water Rail as it skulked in the reeds and found a pair of Mandarins sitting in a lakeside tree. As I walked back down towards the dam I could here the tit flock calling loudly and eventually managed to find a Little Owl hiding in the corner Oak.

On the dam I bumped into John, a local angler who told me he had seen five Goosander land at the far end of the lake earlier on but had not seen them since.

Popped in to the lake on the way home this afternoon and had a quick scan from the dam end and the first bird I saw on the water was a redhead Goosander, Great!!First one of the winter.Not much else on the lake though.

As I left the house this morning I was greeted by the sound of Fieldfares flying over the village. These were joined by the local Jackdaws coming off the roost( in all about 90).
The walk through the bean stubble in Kirkins produced a flock of about 30 Meadow Pipits with a dozen Pied Wagtails.
Down at the lake it was evident that a lot of winter Thushes had arrived as the orchard held around 1100 Fieldfares, and mixed with them I counted around 200 Redwings, 300 Starlings and lots of Chaffinches.Frustratingly, as I had no scope (it's away being repaired) I couldn't find any Bramblings but I didn't want to disturb them so I kept my distance.
The lake itself held very little but the the alder wood held a nice mixed flock which included Coal and Marsh Tit and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
A total of 41 species was seen and for a change I didn't get wet!!

I decided to let the rain clear before I started my walk this morning, so didn't leave the house till about 07.15am.
In the top field the first birds I came across were a couple of Mistle Thrushes,5 Fieldfares and 4 Redwings that I flushed from the wildlife area next to the new affordable housing. Also in this corner was a Reed Bunting, not a bad start to the day.Overhead 40 Jackdaws flew over with a couple of Rooks.As I continued towards the lake most of the commoner species were added to the list.A Kestrel was sitting on a fence post at the rear of the cottages in Furnace Lane, then something caught my attention as it flew low eastwards, a Swallow! only the second November date on the patch, the other being on 06/11/10.
In the field at the rear of the pumping station there were 300+ Woodpigeons and 9 Stock Doves.
The lake was once again quiet although the Great Crested Grebe numbers had doubled to 2. In the orchard adjacent to the lake was a flock of 300 fieldfares and 30 Chaffinches but interestingly I only saw 1 Redwing.
I decided to have a walk in the wet wood at the southern end as I could hear a Sparrowhawk calling and found a pair which seemed to be displaying to each other.
The tit flock in the wetwood held Blue, Great,Coal, Long Tailed and best of all 2 Marsh Tits as well as Treecreeper and Goldcrest.
By the end of my walk I had seen 46 species which I was very pleased with.