Sunday 4th March began with a Reed Bunting at the top of the farm track.

Reed Bunting

There was a flock of 150 Siskins in the alders plus 20+ Lesser Redpolls and a Mealy Redpoll.

The lake held two Teal drakes and a Mandarin of note and a Woodcock was flushed from the alders.

The first Kingfisher for a while was seen on the stream.

Twenty one Lapwings went over east and acouple of Bramblings were in the orchard.

Two Great Black-backed Gulls(71) were a welcome addition to the year list and it was nice to have three Skylarks over.

The evening of the 6th was marred by the finding of a Tawny Owl hanging high in a tree by fishing line.On inspection with the binos I could see that it was alive. Luckily Wez was with me,so we got a ladder and with the help of two visiting birders I climbed the tree to rescue it.

Unfortunate Tawny Owl

Upon rescue the bird was taken to Folley Wildlife Rescue Centre in Groombridge.

THANK YOU TO THE IRRESPONSIBLE ANGLER THAT LEFT HIS FISHING TACKLE IN THE TREE!!!!!!!

The 10th saw the Coues's Arctic Redpoll in the mixed flock.The following morning I found it early on but I don't think it was seen by visitng birders but the flock was very mobile.

The orchard held plenty of birds with eight Bramblings amongst them and a Greylag Goose(72) went over.

Tuesday evening we got a call from the rescue centre to say we could collect the Tawny Owl for release.It was great to be able to get it back into the wild.

A BIG THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED WITH THE RESCUE AND REPAIR OF SUCH A BEAUTIFUL BIRD.

This evening a Brambling was under the feeders and a Grey Wagtail was in the ditch opposite the pumping station.

Brambling under the feeders

Grey Wagtail opposite the pumping station