Fairly blustery conditions, but fairly mild all the same:
- Great Spotted Woodpecker
In the fields below: - flock of c50 Fieldfare - Flock of c50 Starling - c150 Black-headed Gulls + c20 Common Gull
Also some shooting taking place on one of the farms off Thornham Lane with about 8 guns. As far as I could see they had only managed to bag 2 male Pheasants.
Late afternoon walk. Park busy with people and dogs.
Goldcrest 1 (Lesser) Redpoll 1 Nuthatch 2
Carrion Crow - at dusk (16:10 - 16:35) - a large pre-roost gathering of c290-300 carrion crows in the middle of the large, open, grassy field adjacent to the NE boundary of the country park. There were no rooks or jackdaws among them. It was an impressive sight. For a while birds were drifting in, mainly from the north. Small groups started to fly towards the park (though I don't know if this was their final destination). I did several counts as birds kept arriving up to about 16:30, and then it became too dark.
Other highlights this morning at Tandle Hill included: single swallow back at Kenyon's Farm (south side of Tandle Hill), skylark in fields (north side), chiffchaff, treecreepers - nest building, group of six Jays, sparrowhawk, bullfinches, nuthatches and great s. woodpeckers all very vocal and active -- plus a big fight between a mistle thrush and a magpie for reasons unknown.
Originally posted by Brian Warren at 1:26 pm today:
3 Common Crossbills -2 male 1 female at Tandle Hill this morning --drinking from puddles at bottom of hill near car park. Stunning views/colours! Spent an hour looking for them shortly afterwards -- no luck. Brian.
Whinchat (a male fly catching for 10 mins or so) and Skylark at Tandle Hill today. Seems years since they were last here. Also amusing to see Great Spotted Woodpecker checking six fence posts bottom to top each time. Regards Brian