The stalemate with the weather persists with a cold northeast wind and snow blowing in the wind , hard to believe after last year at this time. I went out not expecting to see any summer migrants and I was not suprised when I did not see any ,although there were some early spring migants around. The Kestrel was in it"s usual place having been missing over the last day or so.
The first flock of Fieldfares were seen, the first for a while, with a good 200 plus in the nearby trees, but no Redwings today. The newly manured fields have attracted good numbers of corvids with 110 plus Jackdaws notable. The hightlite of today was a superb male Peregrine Falcon which headed north east , the 2nd sighting of the year.
A Raven soared overhead ,and a Green Woodpecker was heard. A good sighting was had when a flock of 14 Golden Plover headed north east , these will be the last until the Autumn.
The best of the rest were Buzzard, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, 3 Stock Dove, 2 Skylark .This year spring is very late and I for one am bored now with winter. Bring on the sunshine

If it was possible it was even colder today , although the snow had gone the wind was eyewatering ! . But species no 64 appeared  in the form of a Jay , a bird that I do not see until the autumn ,so maybe a bird returning north.
A good size flock of 50 plus Redwing were in the hedgerows  , the first for a few days.The list was short but I still managed to see a Raven and the flock of Meadow Pipits from yesterday were still there with another 4 over heading north .A few more Skylarks were about with 7 in the fields ,apart from a Buzzard that was all of interest
Patch list is now 64 

Winter has returned with blizzards and general crap weather, what a change to last year . I was not going to post on the blog as I thought there would not be alot to tell you about. But I am on here because even in the middle of a blizzard intrepid north bound travellers continue to battle on , namely a flock of 60 plus Meadow Pipits which were grounded by the snow .This follows on from reports from Portland of hundreds arriving yesterday from across the sea .
 The garden has hosted Nutatch ,male Blackcap and a summer plumaged female Brambling over the last two days .
The weather forcast for the next few days is still cold ,it is hard to believe that on the 1st of April last year I was watching a Cuckoo . Spring seems a long way off at the moment .

Patch birding can sometimes be a very hard task ,but I suppose thats what makes it intresting , today was just dire, for mid March when I should be reporting new arrivals it was hard to find anything at all , but every cloud as they say and yes even when Crap a year tick arrived with a calling Curlew near or over the river Meadows .
Fieldfare with 6 plus and Redwing with 10 plus were hanging on and Stock Dove with 7 made up the numbers .Apart from 2 Buzzards and 2 Drumming Greater Spotted Woodpeckers that really was about it
The patch list now stands at 63

Spring refuses to arrive with a north east wind , but here it was still almost mild but elsewhere snow and ice and heavy rain, all this is making any migrants late and by now I would of expected to have recorded Chiffchaff on the patch but as yet there is one big no show.
Patch birding can be a hard task and today confirmed just that ,although it started well enough with a Tawny Owl calling at 5am
On the patch 2 pairs of Buzzard were soaring about and the female Kestrel was hunting.. Just 2 Meadow Pipit today both straight over northwards  and a Pied Wagtail was over as well.
There were however 65 plus Redwing and 10 Fieldfare which flew off north and a further 9 Fieldfare went over high to the north east.
 Stock Dove are still around in good numbers with 9 been seen today including a flock of 5 together.
Apart from a single Skylark I am afraid it was really dire, here"s hoping for better in the following days.

Ok , so I have had a couple of days off work and have been to a couple of local birding sights but I have also made a couple rounds of the local patch ,and although the last vestiges of winter remain there are a few signs that spring is coming although saying that this weeks weather forcast is very wintery .
Saturday morning was a wet affair with heavy rain and there was an upsurge in Redwing 58 plus and Fieldfare70 plus , birds moving east perhaps. Skylarks belted their song with 9 been seen or heard. Stock dove numbered 12 and 2 Pied Wagtail passed over. The most notable bird was a migrant Coal Tit in one of the hedgerows , I never seen one on the patch away from the garden before. A couple of Buzzards took advantage of the breeze to stretch their wings.
Sunday was mild and a good start was a Brambing and a Lesser Redpoll on the feeders . At least 5 Buzzards were up and calling. I was hoping for the first spring migrant but was in  the end not successful .Two flocks of Lesser Black Backed Gulls passed north east , very high up and calling as they went , perhaps a bit of vis mig.
Stock Dove were seen with 4 present and there were 5 Skylark today.. There was however a real sign of spring with at first 1 Meadow Pipit over north and then a flock of 40 plus birds on rough pasture.
 Winter Thrush"s were 50 plus Redwing including 2 singing birds (a first for me in this country), and 20 plus Fieldfare. Perhaps another sign of migration was the presence of a flock 60 plus Chaffinch on stubble with another flock of 10 passing east.
There were also 500 plus Common Gull on sheep pasture,and  a massive assorted gull  flock passing over the Malverns at least 2500 birds , all soaring on thermals . Not on the patch but very impressive all the same
 So a bit of early spring movement and the first Chiffchaff or Wheatear cannot be far away , here hoping  

The last couple of  days have almost been springlike even though we have had heavy frosts ,but we are still to see any spring migrants on the patch even though they are beginning to be seen around and about.
The Brambling has still been in the garden but the Redpolls seem to have gone north .Raptors seen have been the wintering Kestrel which has reappeared , a fine female Sparrowhawk and the local Buzzards which finally got a chance to spread there wings with the fine weather.
Winter Thrush"s are declining in number with a max of 35 plus Fieldfare and 20 plus Redwing and a Mistle Thrush which is still hanging on. There are at least 5 singing Skylark at the moment , so lets hope they can find somewhere to breed. It was nice to see 2 Goldcrest flycatching from some conifers .
There are only about 220 plus Starling left the rest having moved on .
 The best of the rest were  2 Red Legged Partridge, 5 Stock Dove, Cormarant downriver, Greater Spotted Woodpecker and a party of 35 summerplumaged Black  Headed Gulls which moved northwards , 1 Brown Hare was also seen .