Friday January 21 - Spot the bird competition

 This afternoon was cold and grey. Time for some more exploring. I headed for the excitingly named Middletown, a collection of houses just south of Studley. I was vaguely aware that this area has some pedigree, Neil D having seen a Merlin somewhere around here last winter.

I quickly found a massive ploughed field, and within a few minutes got lucky. A small party of Golden Plovers circled in the distance and dropped into the field.

They're in there somewhere

Even with the scope (which I had remembered to bring this time), and knowing where they had landed, it took me several minutes to locate the brown birds against the brown muddy field.

Near impossible (there are three in this shot somewhere)

Time to zoom in for a closer look.

This is your best chance, four in this shot.

If you're still struggling, the most obvious one (ha ha) is left of centre of the shot just beyond the strip of darker soil. Good luck.

As for the rest of the walk I counted 186 Redwings, 16 Fieldfares, 35 Meadow Pipits, a Sparrowhawk, 16 Skylarks, and 535 Woodpigeons.

On the debit side, there were very few finches and no buntings. There must be some somewhere in the Circle.