On another very mild day Willow and I went for our stroll around the local patch, it felt like early April rather early January.
The birds seem to be around in greater numbers than of late, with over 3000 plus Starling feeding around the retreating floodwater, with 200 plus Fieldfare and 100 plus Redwing in the nearby hedgerows and pastures . A nice suprise was finding a female Reed Bunting in some rough ground, not a bird we see around here very often although they are quite common at nearby Ashleworth and Coombe Hill meadows, is this the first spring migrant?.
A female Sparrowhawk cruised over checking out the Starlings and the wintering Kestrel was on its usual telephone post .A Buzzard made up the cast of the birds of prey.
The best birds for me were  the record  number of Lapwings that were flying upriver and in the direction of Ashleworth at least 1400 were counted. really great to see so many ,it"s such a shame that hardly any remain to breed, most of these birds will be from northern and eastern Europe.
The patch species count now stands at 41.
Lets see what the weekend brings.