The cold weather has not arrived as forcast, but it supposed to arrive over the weekend ,so it should provide a few new birds if there is any cold weather movement. The big thing at the moment is the amount of birdsong and the complete absence of winter thrush"s, they were really pentiful not but two weeks ago, they must of moved on having used all local food supplies.
Anyhow the garden came up with a Lesser Redpoll on the feeders again ( yesterday there were 2 along with a Coal Tit but no sign of the latter today), and plenty of the usual suspects.
 The patch is still generally quiet , but there was a flock of at least 2700 Starling and 575 plus Lesser Black Backed Gulls with Common(10 plus), Black Headed (50 plus) and Herring Gulls (20 plus) on the wet pasture.There was a flock of 11 Meadow Pipits with a flock of 17 plus Skylark nearby.
A year tick came in the form of a female Yellowhammer ,not such a common bird on the patch.The rest of the hightlights were Greater Spotted Woodpecker, male Kestrel, Buzzard, just 4 Redwing, 1 Fieldfare and a very grey continental Song Thrush, no doubt he or she has flown over here from northern climes .
The patch count now stands at 49.

The first bird  I heard this morning was a Little Owl calling at 4am ,just as I was getting up for work, I suppose it"s one of the benefits of the job.The Coal Tit and a Lesser Redpoll came to the niger feeder again, considering I had not recorded Lesserc Redpoll on the patch till this year I seem to have seen quite a few this year,although I suspect that all the records relate to the three birds I found at the back end of the year. I also have a niger feeder this year so that may be the difference ,as they say in Waynes World ""If you build they will come"".
A flock of Long Tailed Tits were buzzing around in the garden as well ,so when I left the house I was sure it would be a productive walk, just shows you how wrong you can be.The major numbers were 800 plus Starling and at least 1000 plus Assorted Gulls ,Black Headed ,Lesser Black Backed ,Common and a few Herring Gulls on the now receding floodwaters.Its easy to forget that many of these Gulls would of come from the Baltic and Northern Europe . A small flock of 3 Pied Wagtails had 2 Meadow Pipits tagging along. The rest of the list was made up of Kestrel, Buzzard ,Green Woodpecker and a single Redwing.

Back out today on the patch , but first a little bit of news from Saturday afternoon which was the return of the 3 Lesser Redpolls and the Coal Tit to the garedn feeders.
Anyway back to today, it was another grey very mild day ,but rain set in later.The birds were today very much reduced in numbers but we still managed to see a few nice bits and bobs. A large Raven flew over calling , we seem to have a pair around for most of the year nowadays .
The floodwaters are receding but very slowly,  so a large flock of Black Headed Gulls ,Lesser Black Backed Gulls, with a few Common Gulls are still feeding on the wet pasture. A good sighting was of a flock of 180 plus Wigeon which flew upriver.
There were 5 Buzzards and the local Kestrel was hunting over the fields.Winter Thrush"s amounted to just 20 Redwing and a single Fieldfare, although a stonking male Bullfinch was nice.A Greater Spotted Woodpecker was calling but I did not see it.
The weather is due to turn colder so maybe things may pick up a little bit, ,it can be hard patch birding but it seems to be a slightly addictive thing. Perhaps  I am just a bit sad I suppose.
Species count for the patch is 47. 

Sunday dawned overcast and misty , but still very mild, although the tempretures are to drop from the middle of the week onwards. Willow and myself were not expecting much and in the end we were pretty suprise by what we saw, it still feels as if spring passage has started with drumming Greater Spotted Woodpecker and plenty of bird song now, especially Song Thrush .
Starlings were still plentiful with 600 plus seen as were Fieldfare 150 plus and Redwing 145 plus. A rather lonely Common Gull stood by the floodwater and 2 Pied Wagtail and 3 Skylark made themselves known.Just 2 Meadow Pipits today so the rest seem to have moved on.
A Green Woodpecker was new for the year and the local Kestrel flew over chased by some Jackdaws . A female Bullfinch called from the hedgerows and a Buzzard sat overlooking a field .
The best birds were the last ones seen when a flock of 12 Golden Plover made 3 circuits over before heading towards the river meadows .Really great to see these northern travellers as they will spending their summer on the northern tundra in the far north.
Species count for the patch now stands at 46.

It was like bird porn this morning looking out of the window there were 3 Lesser Redpolls on the niger feeder with a Coal Tit , a good start I thought . The thing about patch birding is it is about ups and downs , so today was the latter.
7 Stock Dove was more normal, but 1500 Starling was down on yesterday, but still good to see.
Fieldfare numbered only 7 and Redwing around 90 plus. 2 Buzzard were soaring around.
There were more Pied Wagtails of late with 4 present and a count of 15 plus Meadow Pipits were many more than of late. A Raven passed overhead
 The species count now stands at 44

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.

A calm day, with a gentle southerly breeze really made it feel like late March rather than early January ,it should be cold but it is anything but, will we get a cold snap I wonder ? .
The birds were not exciting but a flock of 200 plus Redwing with 60 plus Fieldfare with a few Song Thrush and the odd Mistle Thrush were nice to see , it is wierd to think I saw them on the Finish/ Russian border last May.Talking of Russians there are still a good number of Starling knocking  about 350 plus by Town Street Farm.
At least 50 plus Lesser Black Backed Gulls over towards the estuary and the 3 Meadow Pipits are still wintering here, there numbers are much diminished from last wintertime.A female Bullfinch was nice, and the years first Greater Spotted Woodpecker was welcome. A female Kestrel was hunting low over the fields and one of the local Buzzards was about .4 Stock Doves made up the best of the rest.
A garden Coal Tit on the feeders was nice addition to the year patch list.The total patch list now stands at 37.
  With the weather looking set for the next few days  it may stay fairly static as far as the birds go, but who knows ?