I was officially leaving work yesterday so there were a few final things to sort out, including a revisit of 'Boiler Man' to try and re-fix the underfloor heating that turned out not to be fixed last time, but it was another drizzly and murky day so I didn't miss much. Today was much better weather, clear skies opening the day with a light frost turning into hazy winter sunshine. Firstly, I had a walk around the fields, unusual were 7 Common Gulls that flew over. There were 5 Lesser Redpoll feeding in a Silver Birch and 4 Siskin and a few Goldfinch in another. 2 smart male Bullfinches were in the Holly near the house and there were still a handful of Redwings around, I heard but didn't see Fieldfare.
I walked out to Lower House Farm, finding most of the Linnets in the first field. This morning I would estimate 250-300, really difficult to get a more precise count. There was a particularly pale Buzzard in the same field and as well as the Linnets, 30+ Chaffinches, a smart male Brambling, up to 8 Yellowhammer, c10 Meadow Pipit, c20 Redwing, 10+Pied Wagtails and 2 Mistle Thrush.
No sign this morning of any Woodlark and nearly all the birds I saw in the 2 hours were concentrated in that small area. In total I saw 4 Buzzard, a Red Kite and a Kestrel, all of the Buzzards were either sitting in a tree or barely rose above tree-top height, which has been a feature of the last few weeks where the one disappointment has been the lack of raptors.
So the lock-down list concludes on 124 species seen, there were an additional 3 heard but not seen (Tawny Owl, Water Rail and Chiffchaff). Overall I think that is a pretty decent list for November, most of which has been walking from the house, with 5 visits elsewhere in West Sussex.
Ironically as we come out of lock-down we are now into the new tier-ing system, which potentially gives slightly less freedom than we had during lock-down.
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| Dangling Siskin in a Birch |
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A few of the Linnets landing
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| male Yellowhammer |
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| female Yellowhammer |
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| male Brambling |
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| View up to Blackdown. |
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