A day of walking in the snow

Had a couple of long walks in the snow today. Firstly a really nice dog walk around the local farmland set amongst some really nice views at sunrise in the mist and snow (below off my phone). The hedges were full of Fieldfare with a couple of Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin and Dunnock feeding in the bases of the hedges. Reed Bunting was heard calling from a nearby hedge but not seen due to mist. I checked an unfrozen stream - seems to never freeze (where I had Jack Snipe, Common Snipe, Redshank and Green Sandpiper during the 'big freeze' last year) but there was only a single Grey Heron - last year I found a frozen Grey Heron in the same ditch which was a shame, hopefully this one will survive!









My second walk was much longer and stretched across an area of farmland on the Wolds. The snow was quite deep in places where it had drifted. There was again quite a few Fieldfare in the hedges and a few Tree Sparrow, lots of Grey and Red-legged Partridge were searching for food along the hedge bottoms. A small copse held Redwing, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Song Thrush, Blackbird and a range of tits however the highlights came in the form of a single Woodcock, flushed out of a ditch by a Hare that I had flushed! The other highlight was two different flocks of Skylark, one of 210+ birds, the other (over 2km away) of 106+ birds. Both flocks were feeding in kale/stubble fields. Quite a nice surprise and a little unexpected really given the location/time of year/previous visits to the site etc.

A brief stop at Bubwith bridge on the way home in thick fog produced a few Wigeon and Mallard.