Thursday December 13

I have taken a few days off work, mainly to watch the morning cricket coverage, but as thursday morning was very cold and frosty a late morning visit to the patch seemed a good idea.

At Netherstead Farm I was heartened by the sight of six Lesser Redpolls, including a pink-chested male, clinging to the bird feeders, with a Marsh Tit also present. My plan was to target the very south end for finches, and the flash at the north end, to see if the freezing conditions had lured in any wildfowl.

Initially the south end looked less promising than it had done at the weekend, but then a great swirl of finches and winter Thrushes rose from the crop and it was apparent that I would have my work cut out. Counting the Thrushes was fairly straight forward as they were all ground feeding and turned out to be dotted around most of the fields on the farm. I counted 150 Fieldfares and 70 Redwings, but only a handful of Starlings.



Redwing

The finches were much more difficult as they quickly dispersed and dropped into the hedgerows and back into the crops. Nevertheless, based on an estimation of the numbers seen in flight I reckoned there were 280 Chaffinches (my highest count here to date), 150 Linnets, many more than previously this autumn, and maybe a dozen or so Bramblings, Goldfinches and Lesser Redpolls.

In the distance a flock of 40 or 50Skylarks circled the stubble field. I headed that way and eventually reached the frozen pool. I considered checking for Jack Snipes, but decided not to bother. A later text from Matt Wilmott, who evidently was on site after I had left, told me he had seen two, I assume in this area.

The flash pool looked pretty promising as a substantial flock of Teal flew up. I waited for them to return, and eventually counted 134 standing on the ice. As this is a spring-fed field, I think that the reason numbers always go up in freezing conditions is that there are plenty of ice free channels in the field. I could only see nine Snipe, and was slightly disappointed to see no other wildfowl apart from 13 Greylag Geese.

The cold snap is due to end, and the return to mild westerly winds could mean that finding new birds before the end of the year will be pretty challenging.