Sunday 15th January - Wet Weekend.

The first weekend in the UK this year for me. A cold week with snow on Thursday, that wasn't quite as prolonged or disruptive as was suggested. Saturday was cold, calm and bright, A couple of free hours in the morning before resuming the family taxi service. Some tidy up jobs outside let me assess what the birds were up to for the first time this year.

The first bird was surprisingly a smart Firecrest working its way along the holly hedge, as were 2 Goldcrest later on. Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker were early visitors to the feeders although at the moment bird numbers seem quite sparse, two each of Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Siskin and similar for Great Tit, Blue Tit and Coal Tit, with a Marsh Tit turning up later and 8 Long-tailed Tits.

Up to 7 Blackbirds, 4 Dunnocks a couple of feisty Robins and a single Song Thrush met with a couple of Stock Doves  the usual Jackdaws and up to a dozen Pheasant on the grass.

Just before 9am I decided to go for a walk to the south. The Winter landscape was expectedly bare, I encountered limited birdlife at infrequent intervals, Green Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush and Grey Heron being early ones and a calling Fieldfare I couldn't locate, there are no numbers of Winter Thrushes at all around here, I saw only 1 Redwing back in the village. They must be elsewhere in the county where there is more food still available. By the stream a flock of 30+ Siskins were feeding in the Alders and 4 Bullfinch were present. The Furnace Pond had no birds on it whatsoever but the surprise of the morning as I scanned over the large arable field towards the conifers on the edge of West Copse, as the Woodpigeons erupted from the trees a gliding raptor was easily ID'd as a Goshawk, although it didn't stay visible for long but 5 minutes later another adult appeared from the other direction and flew overt the arable field towards the same copse. Great to see these birds are still in the area and so early in the year. A single Common Buzzard was the only other raptor on the walk although as I was looking at this in the distance I did a double-take as I swore that I could see an Emu !!!! Having only just seen some real ones in the Australian outback this was the last thing I was expecting in the bleak British Winter - I think maybe someone has some in a fenced area although it was too distant to investigate. A Red Kite was seen from the house a little later completing a healthy local list for the day.

Today, Sunday - it rained all day  - enough said.

Bare Winter landscape across the large arable field.