As I left the house this morning the temperature recorded on my car's dashboard was -6 degrees C. So I already knew that Morton Bagot was not the best choice of venue. But it was a chance to catch up with Dave after Xmas and we're nothing if not predictable.
As suspected the patch was frozen solid, indeed just getting there proved quite challenging. I've decided to reinstate my Morton Bagot year-list so at least adding to that kept us going. The final total was a paltry 33 species, none of which could be described as unusual.
I only managed to take one photograph, and normally it wouldn't have made the cut. But in the absence of any competition my out of focus, over-exposed Redwing makes the blog by default.
The nearest we came to excitement was when we spotted a flock of geese in fields beyond the flash field. They prompted me to return to the car for my tripod, but eventually proved to be just 90 Greylag Geese and 50 Canada Geese. So we were not able to join in the wild goose bonanza which has been experienced by several Midland sites since the cold weather set in.
Absent today were Stonechats, Snipe, Gulls, Ducks (apart from Mallard) and even Moorhen. However I did add eight species to my overall year-list; Pheasant, Fieldfare, Bullfinch, Green Woodpecker, Greylag Goose, Lapwing, Buzzard, and Kestrel.
Hopefully better days lie ahead.
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