Sunday November 6

A cold sunny morning with a moderate north-westerly breeze.

The patch seems to be stuck in a bit of a rut, birdwise, lately. This morning was typical as Dave and I trudged round seeing the same old birds as on most recent visits.

The only differences were a few gulls over; six Lesser Black-backed, two Herring, and two Black-headed. We did reasonably well at the flash field despite, or possibly because of, the farmer completing a circuit on his quad-bike. He flushed 41 Teal, 20 Mallard, three Wigeon, 70 Greylag Geese, five Snipe, and two Green Sandpipers into view. Interestingly both flashes now contain water, although the nearest was largely frozen. I am guessing that Steve, the farmer, has done something to enable the spring-fed furthest flash to drain into the nearest, whilst both retain their water. A neat trick.

Teal & Wigeon coping with the ice

Continuing along the public footpath we came across the strange sight of an ordnance survey map in a plastic wallet hanging from the hedge.

We guessed that someone had found it and had left it hanging in case the owner was retracing his steps looking for it. A few minutes later we bumped into a man who looked the part, so told him about the map. However, he seemed unaware of its presence. Strangely when we looked back after he had gone on, the map had disappeared. So if you've lost your map a sixty something ironman sporting an orange top and shorts! may be holding it in safe-keeping.

We went on to see a flock of 100 Woodpigeons, about seven Lesser Redpolls, about 130 Linnets, five Bullfinches, and about 50 Fieldfares.

A windswept Bullfinch

Fieldfare

I hesitate to say this, but we need a lot of rain to get the water levels back up. No doubt I will regret this sentiment on a future soggy Sunday.