Well winter sort of arrived the last week ,with frosts , cold winds and even a light dusting of snow on Tuesday. In the brief visits in the week I managed to see another 3 new species for the patch in the form of Pied wagtail , a flyover Grey Heron which was heading towards the river meadows. The 3rd species however was quite a good bird for the patch and only the third record for hereabouts. It came in the form of a Little Egret that passed over southwards in between some fairly heavy hail and snow showers .
After a rather pleasant and easy visit to Ashleworth Ham on Saturday afternoon where there were birds aplenty and having heard of a Finch fest on a fellow birders neighbouring patch (Hartpury Orchard Centre blog ,where Steve French is really beginning to see this young patch really starting to blossom ) which included flocks of 80 plus Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings I was really keen to see if the colder weather had brought anything different to my little piece of no where .
So with that in mind Willow and I were out at first light , it got off to a good with 7 Blackbird s feeding on the front lawn of the cottage but in the end we ended up with the usual count of 19 plus .
Other winter Thrush on the patch were 7 Song Thrush , 2 Mistle Thrush a lower count of 25 plus Redwing and a nice count of 146 plus Fieldfares. In amongst the Thrush were around 300 plus Starlings many will have come from the same areas of Russia and Scandanavia to spend the winter with their Thrush neighbours .
The pastures were quite frozen and as a result I could only find 5 Meadow Pipits this morning .After a quite start however 13 plus Skylarks made themselves noticed . Whilst on the pastures species 48 for the year leapt up in the form of 4 Red Legged Partridge. It was also nice to see a small flock of 20 Gulls on the sheep pastures ,even with just 20 birds there were 3 species with Herring, Common and Lesser Black Backed all feeding together.
In the hedges my only contribution to the Finch fest was a small flock of 5 Greenfinch, pathetic really . But that aside a Bullfinch was heard thereby keeping my Bullfinch fan smiling . There are still Jays wintering with us and one was seen flying over a hedgerow , its been nice to report that one has been in the cottage garden recently .
The good run on Stock Doves keeps going with 10 plus today ,and some were even starting to display , a very early sign of Spring.
It was not only Stock Doves that feel the upcoming Spring, a Greater Spotted Woodpecker was drumming this morning .I have the feeling they are being a tad optimistic just yet .The other member of the woodpecker family we see here was in fine voice with 2 Green Woodpeckers yaffling , its a great call to hear ,its really reminds me of this area. Even the local Football club has this bird on their badge.
The only other birds of note were 3 Buzzard and a flyover Cormorant which was heading westwards.
So the species count for the patch this year so far now stands at 48.
If the birding gods are listening and would like to get the new year off to a belting start and therefore would like to deal a winter special please "Give it to me now " .
Heres hoping
