Sunday November 21

 This morning Dave and I were back at Morton Bagot hoping to find something worthwhile. It was sunny but cold, the fresh north-westerly making me regret not having pulled the winter coat out of the wardrobe.

Although we had each noticed an apparent influx of Blackbirds on our respective journeys, we struggled to find anything else encouraging. In fact the visit was quite discouraging. We bumped into a couple of guys who had been carrying out Deer control, and although we had heard no shots, there seemed to be very little to look at.

At the flash field about 50 Teal, and a Wigeon was a pretty typical return. A few Siskins and Redpolls were not really close enough to photograph, but I tried anyway.

A female Siskin

Lesser Redpoll

A little brown job flew into a bush in front of me and looked "interesting" before disappearing. In the absence of any calls, or a view of its head, I was forced to write it off as a poorly seen Wren. 

It was turning into one of those days.

I also thought I'd share an image of some landscape altering recently completed by a farmer whose sheep pasture stretches towards Bannams Wood.

A former hedge

Back in the late 1970s I remember attending my first West Midland Bird Club AGM where the club secretary, the late Alan Richards, decried the loss of hedgerows in the region. Forty years on it seems that little has changed.