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.

 The nights are certainly drawing in, as the sun was dropping even though it was about 16.10, but least there was something different on the lake when I looked in on it after work.
On the water were 40 Mallard, a Great Crested Grebe, 15 Moorhens, a pair of Mandarins and a female Tufted Duck.
Overhead a Brambling called, as did a Reed Bunting, Meadow Pipit and 11 Fieldfares.
On the walk back to the van I flushed a Kingfisher from its lakeside perch.

Saturday 27/10/12

As expected there was a very chilly wind as I left the house. I decided to stand at the top of the field in Kirkins as this affords a good view of a lot of the area.
The wind was biting so I only managed to stand there for about an hour,but in that time I saw 63 Black Headed Gulls, 2 common Gulls, 3 Great Black-backed Gulls,43 Canada Geese,2 Sparrowhawks and a Kestrel plus the first Reed Bunting in quite a while..
The winter thrushes had arrived in better numbers and eventually I saw 130 Redwings and 413 Fieldfares.
Down at the lake a smart drake Gadwall was residing with the numerous Mallards and fly-overs included 9 Lapwings, 4 Skylarks,a Lesser Black-backed Gull , 2 Herring Gulls and 4 Lesser Redpolls.As I was leaving I had a 4th GBB Gull.
This afternoon when I popped into the lake on my way home, yesterdays Gadwall had gone but there were 2 Little Grebes and a Kingfisher.

At last! Fieldfares arrived on the patch today, with a total of 56 seen, made up mainly of one flock of 34.
There was a good selection of birds with a couple of Skylarks over and both Siskins and Redpolls around the lake. Eleven Redwings were seen but today was my first walk without any summer migrants. The lake itself remains very quiet with just 47 Mallards and 10 Moorhens on it but a Grey Wagtail was on the Waterfall.
This afternoon I had a walk around Share Farm where I had a skein of 60 geese go over S/West but unfortunately they were too high up to ID with the binoculars. Consolation was a lone Lapwing which flew north.

Sunday 21st

I left the house at 07.30 this morning with rain still falling, as it had been doing most of the night. As I walked into the field  behind Kirkins Close a pair of Canada Geese flew noisily overhead.The constant rain meant that there wasn't much flying over but as I neared the corner of the hedge in Gibbet Lane I heard a Ring Ouzel(111) call from inside the hedge(BRILLIANT!!). Unfortunately as I took a few steps closer it left the hedge and climbed higher before disappearing East over the village. Luckily this gave me some excellent views of it as it flew round. This is only the second I've seen on the patch,the other being a male which stayed a couple of days in May 2007.
Down at the lake there was a flock of about 70 Chaffinches which had at least half a dozen Bramblings amongst them. Apart from this there were 7 Siskins and a flyover Redpoll and 12 Redwings of note(still no Fieldfares).
On the way home a Chiffchaff was in the hedge in Gibbet Lane.
During the afternoon I went down to the lake and saw a Grey Wagtail and a Kingfisher in the gloom.