Friday December 16

A cloudy misty start with a very light southerly breeze. A few sunny intervals during the morning.

The first bird I looked at today was a Collared Dove. So what? You may say. Well I've been getting a little concerned for the local Collared Doves. They were down to two pairs this summer, and I haven't seen one at all for about a couple of months, until today, when there were two.

In fact Pigeons produced the biggest headline today. A large flock rose from the stubble field only to resettle there a few minutes later. I had guesstimated 700, which would have been a new record. Then a gunshot rang out as the Pheasant shoot started up from the direction of Clowse Wood. The Woodpigeons erupted from the field and I managed a camera shot of them before they dispersed.

Nearly 1000 Woodpigeons

Counting the dots when I got home I have come up with a figure of 895, and as there are clearly more just outside the frame it seems certain that there were at least 900 present, and probably close to 1000.

Soon, however, my attention switched to geese. I could hear a substantial flock of Greylags from the direction of the flash field. When I got onto them with my bins I thought I could see a slightly smaller one with them. Unfortunately by the time I reached the field they had all disappeared. I was left with thirty or so Teal, four Lapwings, and a Green Sandpiper to look at. Two Siskins flew passed. This is a species I have found extremely hard to photograph here, so I had them in mind when I set off along the hedgerow. As it happened, I did see them again in a distant alder, possibly with more Siskins. I chose to divert across the brook to try to get closer. Eventually I found the flock again only to discover they were Goldfinches, with just two Siskins. As I mentioned, I hadn't got a decent shot of Siskin here.

Siskin

I still haven't !

At this point I started to hear geese again, and found that the flock of Greylags was in flight once more. They all looked like Greylags apart from one Canada Goose, and after they went down I decided to walk across the strip field to try to gain height. This did allow me to see the Greylag Geese settled in a distant field, and I got a count of 115. As I was putting my scope away I noticed a medium sized duck pitch down towards the flash. Suspecting a Wigeon I returned to the place I view the flash field from and flushed three female Wigeon and at least 40 Teal.

The three Wigeon

At this point I got onto a small party of distant geese. The scope was up and I established they were Greylags, and that one was a bit smaller than the others. Sadly when they joined the main goose flock all I could see were Greylags so I am forced to conclude it was just a small Greylag.

Fieldfare

Meadow Pipit

So that was it. Back at the car 30 Lapwings flew overhead, but the patch remains pretty dull.

Meanwhile the week at Ripple has just got better, with Great White Egret and Cattle Egret turning up on the pools adjacent to where the Dusky Warblers are. Perhaps I should move down there.