February

 January always starts off with lots of enthusiasm, after all, it's a new year and a fresh start. Then February arrives and things go downhill fast. Normally it is the worst month for bad weather and this year was no exception with rain and strong winds most weekends and three severe storms to boot. Consequently I only managed to get out on three days.

 On the Saturday 5th, there was a clear period in the afternoon before heavy rain arrived to ruin the following day, which gave me a couple of hours around Fairlands Lakes. I spent a while at the balancing pond again, but the Water Rail wasn't playing ball. It was rather windy, so small birds were elusive, but there were a few small tit flocks, and a few finches (no Siskin though) and plenty of singing Robins and Blackbirds. Gulls were a bit tricky as there were a lot of people feeding them, but there must have been a couple of hundred Black Heads, as well as four each of Herring and Lesser Black Backs and a rather high count of 25 Common Gulls.

 I then had to wait until the last weekend to get out again. The Saturday 26th afternoon was spent doing a circuit around Aston End in warm and sunny conditions though it was still a bit breezy. Following the previous weeks storms, there were a few trees down and a lot of debris, but it was actually better than expected. The ground was rather firm and dry and there was a reasonable amount of water in the river, and the only downer was the fenced off fields and badly damaged footpath by Gresley Way where the new estate is going up.

 Undoubted highlight was the Tawny Owl calling near Redwings Farm. Judging by the noise, the crows weren't happy having it around. Finches and buntings were in short supply-the flock of Chaffinch and Yellowhammers seen recently appears to have dispersed, with only a few birds in the area now. The scrubby fields south of Walkern seem to be the favoured Redwing spot at the moment, with 24 birds feeding in a hawthorn clump. Further on, the big sheep field was as expected where I found the Fieldfare, with around 60 birds present, though I suspect there were more out of view.

On the Sunday, I was out with Colin visiting the Brecks. It was a sunny day, but rather cold with an overnight frost. Our first port of call was St Helens picnic area at Santon Warren. A short walk across and along the river produced  a good number of Siskin, Brambling and Redpolls with a few Nuthatches, Marsh Tit, a Bullfinch and some thrushes in the paddocks. It was a bit busy with dog walkers so we headed off to Lynford Arboretum, which turned out to be incredibly busy despite the early hour. We missed the Hawfinches which had left their roost though one or two were supposed to be visiting the feeders, which were busy with Brambling, Siskin, Nuthatch-basically a repeat of St Helens with the bonus of a few Yellowhammers. I had hoped for Crossbill and Firecrest here but we had no luck.

The next bit involved a drive around various spots in the hope of finding a displaying Goshawk and singing Woodlark. There were several stop offs which weren't successful, though it seemed that every ploughed field had a big flock of Fieldfare in it. Eventually we arrived at the best known watchpoint, stopping off a few hundred yards west on the higher ground. A superb male Goshawk was seen shortly after we stopped, and there were a lot of Buzzards up as well over the woods to the north east. Unfortunately and presumably due to the wind the Woodlarks couldn't be located anywhere.

 We finished at RSPB Lakenheath Fen. It was a pleasant end to our day but we didn't add anything to our year list. The wind was keeping Bearded Tits down and despite a long spell at the Joist Fen shelter, no Cranes or Kingfishers showed. The washes were more interesting with a small flock of Avocets and Oystercatchers among the wildfowl, and there was also a lot of Marsh Harrier activity, including a displaying male, and a nice pair of Stonechat as well.