March 9th

I did a quick visit last night after work from around 5.40- 6.15, I waited by the lake hopefully to catch some Mandarin coming to roost nearby, these didn't appear but a large female Peregrine flew low over the lake at about 5.50 making me wonder where it was roosting, Stephen had probably the same bird over the wood at the weekend. Apart from that there were several Redwings flying in to roost in some holly and a Kestrel went to roost on the tower.
With the wind most definitely turned it wasn't quite as cold as recent mornings, there were 3 Bullfinches in the car park and it again was nice and lively with good numbers of Chaffinches and House Sparrows and a couple of singing Dunnocks and Robins. A single Fieldfare flew over with several Starlings and a small group of 4 Siskins soon followed. Linnets normally like the veg garden and this morning a couple were investigating it, as I approached the lake a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker called 3 times but I was unable to see it. A few gulls drifted over as well this morning of four different species, the most for a while. The Marsh Tits were back this morning associating with a couple of Goldcrests, Blue Tits and Long Tailed Tits. In the fields there were 6 Skylarks, I could hear at least 2 Yellowhammers singing and a couple of Grey Herons flew over, later Stephen had a lone Lapwing over after he looked for what I was pretty sure was a Black Redstart, I had seen briefly this morning, unfortunately it didn't re-appear and my distant flight views weren't totally conclusive.

This Goldcrest stayed still just long enough!