Tuesday November 24

Following overnight rain the morning dawned cloudy and gloomy, and stayed that way. A light south-westerly wind failed to raise the temperature to more than the seasonal average.

This was to be a visit measured by quantity rather than quality. I tried to get an idea of the number of thrushes which seemed to flush from every hedge, and came up with counts of 120 Redwings, 60 Fieldfares, 20 Blackbirds, eight Song thrushes and a Mistle Thrush.

As I chose to walk along the road initially, I encountered good numbers of tits, and in particular Long-tailed Tits. Four groups of these little birds brought me a site record count of 24 individuals.

Finches were numerous as usual, but I failed to get close to a flock of well over a hundred, mostly Linnets, as I headed for the flash field. Beyond the field a flock of about 200 Starling wheeled around, but my attention was then taken by a big party of Mallard and Teal on the pool. Unfortunately they all flew off, leaving me guessing at 150 Mallard and a similar number of Teal. Fortunately the latter only went as far as the nearest flash and I was able to confirm that there were 147 present, the best count for a year or two, plus a Green Sandpiper, five visible Snipe, and 51 Greylag Geese.

On the return journey I had the opportunity to photograph a tame Lesser Redpoll as it fed on birch seeds.

Lesser Redpoll

Not much else to report, although I did take the chance to count the tree rings on some of the logs piled up following extraction from Bannams Wood.

I reckon this tree was about 56 (the same age as me) when it was cut down.