A trip to Fishers Green yesterday was uneventful. According to the species list the bitterns are back but seem to prefer the new reedbeds away from the bittern hide.
I walked around Seventy Acres and Holyfield lakes and the one remarkable thing was the lack of pochard. I only saw one or two individuals which on previous experience is most unusual for this time of year. I actualy saw more wigeon and gadwall both of which I would normally regard as being less common than pochard.
I did go looking for goosander which I have seen on Holyfield in previous years but without any luck.
With some cold dry weather there has been a lot of activity on the feeders this weekend. With three different robins visiting the garden there have been fewer fights than I would have expected. The sight of the weekend has been a robin regularly visiting the starling feeder with a pair of beady eyes peeping over the top of the fat bar. As I had run out of sunflower hearts I topped up the ground hopper with pinhead oatmeal which seems to have been very popular. I even had a song thrush inside the cage which is a first. Althogther the weekend has included goldfinches, chaffinches, great tits, blue tits, coal tits, marsh/willow tit (I must learn how to distinguish those), blackbird, song thrush, robin, dunnock and wood pigeon. Unusually for this area a heron also flew across the garden during the day. I haven't seen any long tailed tits or greenfinches around here for a while and there wasn't a single house sparrow around during the weekend.
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