The area was generally quite but I managed a few Brambling, Fieldfare, Redwing, Song Thrush, Linnet, Skylark and Meadow Pipit with lots of Starling moving along the bushes. Out on the marshes were several Little Egret, Marsh Harrier, Brent Geese, Shelduck and various waders (Snipe, Redshank, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Curlew, Dunlin etc).
I was doing various Barn Owl dawn/dusk surveys as well as diurnal and nocturnal surveys for Golden Plover - it has certainly got a lot colder this week, meaning it was time for the thermals! Its always interesting watching the Golden Plovers, they can get disturbed by the slightest of things, e.g. a Hare, and then fly round for 20 minutes before landing back in the same place!
Activity overnight was fairly low - but the full moon (phone-scope picture below) certainly lit the countryside up a fair bit.
Vantage points this morning resulted in an impressive 4,375 Wood Pigeon flying through, with several hundred Fieldfare, almost 400 Golden Plover and a mixed finch flock of almost 200 birds (Goldfinch and Linnet). All of this prey inevitably attracted a Peregrine Falcon, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk. A decent number of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were around and Lesser Redpoll, Brambling and Siskin also flew overhead. A Green Sandpiper was a surprise as it flushed off a slurry pit.
Back home this evening 5x Swans (Whooper?) flew fairly high south.
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