Hello, and welcome to this weeks update from an increasingly wet and flooded patch .The last week has been another week of driving rain and gale force winds, the ground is a sodden muddy swamp and a number of trees have fallen foul of the winds .
After helping build a sandbag wall to help keep the village from flooding the 51st species for this year on the patch came in the form of 2 Tawny Owls calling to each other ,a nice way to get over the 50 barrier.
After the storm on Friday ,I was out on the patch fairly early and out it was fairly obvious the winter thrush numbers are still high on the patch with a average number of 56 plus Redwing around but this was dwarfed by the large numbers of Fieldfare present with 550 plus seen. They were supported by 850 plus Starling .A solitary Mistle Thrush was also seen.
Species 52 for the year came in the form of 2 Shelduck which were on the floodwater ,a good bird for the patch and only the second record here. A couple of Moorhen were nice again a product of the floods . The Black Headed Gull flock has reduced in number with 65 plus today.
Apart from that it was hard going with the weather although 6 plus Skylarks were about ,a number even daring to sing . 5 plus Stock Dove and a Pied Wagtail made up the best of the rest.
The patch total now stands at 52.
