Sunday December 18

A foggy start forced us to walk along the road where most birds were close enough to be seen reasonably well. Friday's Pheasant shoot seems to have left one cock bird completely unconcerned.

Walking the road does at least produce a slightly different selection of birds, with Nuthatch, Coal Tit, Goldcrests, and a couple of Mistle Thrushes being seen. The trees by Greenhills are often the best place on the entire patch for Bullfinches, and we ended up with a count of at least ten, not far from the patch record.

Five of the Bullfinches

The Tawny Owl was showing as we headed down to the pool, where the fog lifted to reveal not very much really. We counted five Wigeon, 63 Teal, 23 Mallard, 82 Greylag Geese, and a Green Sandpiper.

There were still plenty of Woodpigeons, we estimated about 600, and a few large gulls flew over. However, the "best" bird was a Feral Pigeon (or racing pigeon) which just about says it all.

Feral Pigeon (or racing pigeon having a breather)