In need of some more fresh air yesterday I pushed on through the snow and ended up at West Hartford. All pools were frozen as expected but still a pair of Stonechat flew around the edges of the reeds.
I then walked up to and through Hartford Woods. A nice male Bullfinch was flushed from the ground on the way there and 2 Cormorants flew east along the river Blyth. It was worth sitting in the freezing cold and snow for over and hour as a few Roe Deer wandered past me completely oblivious as I sat on a tree trunk. A GS Woodpecker was drumming away nearby and a flock of 5 Song Thrush, 15 Fieldfare and 30+ Redwing fed on the rare patch of bare ground on the edge of the woods.
Every so often the flock would get up on mass and fly further into the woods and then come back. I soon realised that some of the flock were mobbing something in the trees. A few times I caught site of something brown hopping from tree to tree as it was mobbed. I never got close enough or got a proper view but I’m sure it was a Tawny Owl.
I walked back through the stubble fields were 6 Grey Partridge, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and a Grey Wagtail were all seen. Also a flock of 60 Lapwing were flying around the backfields.
Despite the cold not a single snipe was along the edges of the Horton burn on the way back where the water was still flowing.
When I got home I look out my window and as I thought I could see the Lapwing flock high up in the air. So that’s the first new bird to enter the garden list in 2013.
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