Saturday 7th December - Fernhurst

Hadn't been for a walk from the house for a while, so that was Saturday morning's itinerary. The weather has been fairly benign over the last week, cold with a bit of mist and fog, generally clearing to a dry and partly cloudy day... and this morning was no different. There are still lingering numbers of Woodpigeons, although not the colossal flocks of a couple of weeks ago.

In summary my walk was pleasant but a little unproductive on the bird front, the highlights being a lot of Nuthatches - I counted 8 including what was approaching a flock of 4 birds, 5 Bullfinches and 3 Marsh Tits. I was hoping for a Crossbill or maybe a Woodcock, but nothing unexpected, in fact I may have seen more species staying in the garden. I found several remains of Woodpigeon on the footpaths. It's difficult to conclude the predator involved although I was suspecting that foxes were involved at some point. It could have been Buzzards as a prey the pigeons are slightly big for all but the largest female Sparrowhawks. An outside chance a Goshawk had been involved, but actually more likely some were downed by human intervention.

At home there is still a mobile Siskin flock with up to 30 birds, and a flock of Redpolls numbered 22 but were very flighty, so working assumption is that they are all Lesser Redpolls, although I've not managed to 'scope' them. The vocal Marsh Tit is continuously working around the gully, occasional glimpses of the Grey Wagtails, and very small numbers of Redwing with the odd Fieldfare, and both Song and Mistle Thrush. A Long-tailed Tit flock moves past the back door once a day with about 15 birds and there's often a Treecreeper associating with them.

A Sparrowhawk is given away by an alarm call from our Cockerel. and the local Buzzard puts in an occasional appearance.

Today (the 12th) I heard a Firecrest at the back of the fields in the ivy clad oaks, but only glimpsed it in fading light and fog.

Muddy Winter Tracks.