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Christmas

The heavy frosts before Christmas brought a lot of birds into the garden but mostly more of the same. A few stray house sparrows appeared from time to time and a solitary long tailed tit made a single visit to the fat feeder.

On Christmas Eve a walk down Bottom Lane was interesting. About a quarter mile from the nearest house there were some bullfinches in the hedgerow. The first that I have seen locally, while a red kite spent a lot of time overhead. I don't know what is happening about the crazy idea of redesignating the cluster of bridleways between Botley and Waterside as "byways open to all traffic", I just hope it has died the death it deserves.

Boxing Day gave a brief glimpse of a blackcap on the lilac in the garden but the movement as I reached for the bins to get a better look frightened it off. The statutory family visit that afternoon gave a nice view of a buzzard along the M10
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