WEEK
BEGINNING
SUNDAY.
What started out as dull morning and very unpromising turned into a beautiful afternoon with clear blues skies. The groung and all standing water lay frozen all day and the flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare worked hard to find soft ground. The land to the east of the marsh seemed to have warmed up first and the flocks of thrushes gathered here in the late afternoon.
In the hedge a single Song Thrush found some berries on the Ivy and fluttered up from the ground to grab then and then down again. After several minutes of exersion it stood where the field edge met the hedge, sheltered from the cold wind by the copse behind and took a well deserved rest in the afternoon sun.
The Hares have already started boxing on the farm. I found these two taking shelter beneath a large tree near the farm.
The water in Stine pipe was still moving and unfrozen, it was here I found 4 Teal, the only Teal of the afternoon. The usual big gathering on the open pools, now frozen, was nowhere to be found.
A huge flock of Woodpigeons, numbering more than a couple of thousand drifted into the trees in the Hawthorn paddock and a small flock of Lapwing flew past in the distance.
A friendly Robin came close as I stood and watched a small group of birds moving through the copse alongside the road. In this group a single female Siskin and two Coal Tits.
The Mallard were in the open field feeding vigouroulsy but on what I couldn't make out. Buzzards were everywhere at least 6 in view at one time. Two Ravens shot past travelling west in thier puropseful manner.
In other areas of the Weald Moors I found Chaffinches and a 150 flock of Jackdraws. A single Kestrel took watch from roadside telegraph wires.
The Buttery turned up 26 Mute Swans and a single snipe
TUESDAY
THURSDAY
SATURDAY.