What a difference a day makes ! Bright sunshine, slight breeze and no rain ! .With the better weather came the birds and the first bird seen was a patch and year tick ,it came in the form of a cracking Grey Wagtail feeding on semi flooded pasture .
As the walk progressed it became obvious that there were plenty of birds around at least 1000 plus Starling 400 plus Fieldfares and 250 plus Redwings on pastureland or feeding in the hedges. 2 Mistle Thrushes were keeping them company as well.
It was nice to see the first Bullfinches in a while with 2 been seen and an unseen Moorhen called from a flooded field .
The top fields are a mess ,mud and standing water making going tough but there were a flock of 9 Pied Wagtails and 40 plus Meadow Pipits feeding there. On the usual field 20 plus Skylarks were feeding and one gave brief song maybe hoping to kick start spring.
The raptor flag was flown by 2 Buzzards and a female Kestrel which passed over.
On the flooded fields 5 Mute Swans and small groups of Mallard were feeding and a large flock of 500 plus Black Headed Gulls were feeding on the edge of the water, it was a flock took off and headed over me that 1 Gull caught my attention and I was surprised to see that it was indeed an adult winter plumaged Mediterranean Gull , a great bird and my second patch tick of the day
The best of the rest were Green Woodpecker ,Greater Spotted Woodpecker Linnet ,5 northern looking Lesser Black Backed Gulls ,3 Stock Dove .
The species total for the year jumps to 49
