Just a quick update, very cold with a biting north wind , however a new year tick appeared in the form of a female Blackcap which was on the feeders. These birds are from Eastern and Northern Europe and are part of the population that has started to winter in the UK, they will migrate back to Germany etc for the breeding season only to be replaced by migrants from North Africa for the summer .There was only 1 Lesser Redpoll today .
The patch itself was still very quiet with the only hightlights being 1500 plus Starling 75 plus Black Headed Gulls both feeding on the receding floodwater. Apart from 5that 120 plus Fieldfare and just 6 Redwing made up the best of the rest.
With the addition of the Blackcap the patch list now stands at 56.

The weather has turned cold again, as a result the number of Lesser Redpolls has jumped to 8 yesterday and 7 today . It is the first time I have recorded them on the patch in 11 years and to have them in the garden is a bonus.
 Generally it is all a bit samey really, with Redwings and Fieldfares numbering 120 plus each and Starling at the 300 plus mark.
A small group of 4 Meadow Pipits were in the company of a Pied Wagtail . The female wintering Kestrel was in the usual place ,in a short while she will be off to her breeding territory.On the flooded meadows the odd Mallard was bobbing about and a group of 25 Black Headed Gulls with a couple of Common Gull fed on the waters edge.A year tick was added when a flock of 12 Shelduck flew north upriver .
The patch list is now at 55

With the pressure of work this week this is a two day update .The weather has been mild and very wet with the river in full flood again. The birds have been a bit samey really with flocks of 400 plus Fieldfare and 80 plus Redwing being noteworthy. The wintering Skylark flock has been seen with a max of 30 plus. Starling were numerous onThursday with 1500 plus over. The odd Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails on the fields were scratching a living .
 It was sad to see a Lapwing on its own with a broken wing .Theqwintering female Kestrel is still with us and 1or 2 Buzzards have floated over.
On the feeders we have had 4 Lesser Redpolls on the niger feeder.
 Just a small note that it was great to see so many Red Kites on the M40, with at least 20 being counted between Reading and Oxford, but the iceing on the cake was seeing one near Chedworth over the Gloucestershire county line. We usually see one or two on the patch around mid May

A horrible wet and very windy day today, although it was very mild, . The whole area looks as if it is going to be flooded again with all the rain and meltrd snow.
2 Lesser Redpoll were on the feeders again which is nice to see .On the patch itself the main thing was a large flock of 400 plus Fieldfare with 100 plus Starling and 50 plus Redwing . There was more Woodpigeons of late with 400 plus, including a large 300 plus flock flying northeast. A new species for the patch list was found with a flock of 7 Red Legged Partridge .Apart from that 1 Meadow Pipit, 2 Buzzard, female Kestrel, and a flock of Skylarks were heard going over .
The patch list now stands at 54

What a difference a day makes ! today was mild very windy and even the sun came out for a while ,mind you this was after torrential rain overnight which melted all the lying snow and left the ground saturated again.So it came as no suprise to find 47 Lapwing on the adjacent fields , but what was a suprise was the flock of at least 1000 Lapwings which flew over from the now flooded river meadows, a great sight.
The other main featurec of the day was the start of the northward movement of Skylark , with the winter flock of 47 plus birds still on pasture and another at least 19 seen heading directly north. There seems to be only 2 Meadow Pipits left now ,the others having moved on.Winter Thrush 's totalled 85 plus Fieldfare and 20 plus Redwing, and a Mistle Thrush was noted.
The best of the rest were 5 Stock Dove ,just 100 plus Starling, and a Buzzard
So perhaps the first hints of Spring or am I being over optomistic?
The patch species remains the same.

A couple of days worth of updates.Yesterday was really cold with a searing east wind, pressure from work and general stuff meant that I only managed a quick trot around the top part of the patch, but even so I managed to see a few nice birds .There were a larger number of Lapwings about with 74 on pasture  with 30 plus Fieldfare, also 600 plus Starling .
Anyway back to today still very cold but  there  is a thaw on the way, still under time pressure so again a quick visit around the top of the patch a cracking flock of 45 plus Skylark and about 100 plus Common Gulls  were feeding on the frozen pasture. The Lapwing flock has decreased to 15 and winter thrushes consisted of 5 Redwing and 15 Fieldfare. Just 2 Meadow Pipits today .The usual Kestrel was on station and a Buzzard passed by. I was pleased to hear a Tawny Owl calling at 5am this morning when I was working ,it sounded as if it was on the roof of the house !
A year tick for the patch was a pair of Mute Swan which pushs the patch total to 53 

At last something to write about, the weather has been cold with snow over the last couple of days, but today although cold with snow flurries there were
 at 4 signs of a thaw .With the weather becoming milder with rain, I fear floods maybe our next problem, there is alot of water on the land at the moment.
There were some good birds on the feeders today amongst the common species, Lesser Redpoll, Nutatch, Coal Tit, and a great bird in the form of a Brambling.
On the patch 33 Lapwing on the frozen pasture were kept company by 40 Common Gulls and a Raven .Fieldfare(30plus), and Redwing(20 )were feeding on the thawing snow .A really good count of 47 plus Skylark was the highest of the winter so far.
There are still good numbers of Starling with 800 plus about today. There were 8 Meadow Pipits flitting about and a Green Woodpecker was heard. There was a flock of 10 Goldfinch over and a Stock Dove passed over.
The patch list now stands at 52