MID-AFTERNOON STROLL ALONG THE RIVER
A beautiful sunny winters' day, cold but bright and clear. I took my usual walk along the edge of the river scanning the alder trees for finch flocks, I noted Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit and Pied Wagtail in the gardens around my flat. My star find along the river was Lesser Redpoll, just 3 of them feeding in the alders with a flock of Goldfinches.
The track with the river running along on the left
Redwings
Two Ravens flew over 'cronking' all the way, whilst a nice flock of some 50+ Redwings fed in the meadow ahead of me. I also found 3 Fieldfares, a couple of Green Woodpeckers, Mistle Thrush and a good selection of all the common species.
river with Alder Trees
Mistle Thrush
Two surprise finds were Common Pheasant, my first for this walk, and a fly over Great Cormorant. A Nuthatch was nice to see and a flock of Long-tailed Tits was one of my last sightings. The sun began to disappear, the light faded and the temperature dropped surprisingly fast - time to go home and make Dawn a cup of tea as she had been painting all the time I was out.
Green Woodpecker