Sunday December 1

A grey morning, but quite mild with no appreciable wind. No-one else there either.  This being the case I spent more time trying to photograph things than usual and altered my normal routine in the hope of maximising my chances of locating a Crossbill.

I therefore parked at Church farm and entered the site from Bannams Wood, before heading to the willow where Matt saw the Crossbills on Friday. This area had a lot of birds, particularly Redwings, Fieldfares, Buntings, and Finches, but no Crossbills.

The winter thrushes were hard to count as usual, but I only estimated 240 Redwings and 150 Fieldfares. There were about 15 Yellowhammers dotted about, and about 20 Reed Buntings.

This Robin was posing nicely along the bridle path, and I was pleased to get an image of a Wren, given that they rarely stay still for long.

The line of saplings behind the pool harboured several Reed Buntings, and also the wintering Stonechat, and a Goldfinch, both of which obliged by sitting still for me.

Finally, a juvenile Cormorant was perched in the dead tree beyond the pool, so even though it was quite distant I had a go at it as I cannot remember photographing one here before.

The flashes were pretty disappointing again, about 30 Lapwings, eight Snipe, and 10 Teal were on the nearest flash, while the field beyond the furthest scrape contained a flock of 199 Greylag Geese and one Snow Goose.

At Netherstead Farm I walked into a flock of 250 Linnets, and a single Lesser Redpoll. Continuing with the theme of route variation I walked back along the road to be as close as possible to the woodland. The main gain was great views of four Goldcrests at the edge of Bannam's Wood. I tried to get a shot, but they were far too lively to give me a chance.