Patch week 5

The 29^th and 30^th of Jan were wiped out by continual rain – no visit

31^st Jan  A cold raw morning, nothing of note at Standalone hide so I continued on down the Pix brook which provided brief views of the overwintering chiffchaffs gleaning the occasional fly and midge along the brook foliage. The rest of my two hour walk was uneventful and then back came the rain.

1^st Feb A cold bright day, first stop the Standalone hide where I found 44 Canada geese, the most I have seen there, on my way around the Greenway I again saw the lark finch and rook flocks on the fields.

After lunch Les and I went to Broom lakes and then tothe lodge at Sandy where the highlight was a raven tumbling and kronking near the hillfort

2^nd Feb Les and I visited in the afternoon after a morning birding around other parts of Herts, we were walking the Greenway and were pleasantly surprised to see a flock of between 80 and 120 LAPWINGS  a pair of GREY PARTRIDGES flew onto a field in front of us and posed for long views in the scope, we also counted a healthy flock of 76 rooks on the fields and saw a number of distant finches too.                                                                                                                               Patch list 63

3^rd Feb I started at the Blue lagoon, once more very quiet but a pair of HERRING GULLS flew over. Next stop Standalone hide, lots of B H gulls one of which already had an almost black head,  two bullfinches were feeding on the young buds very close to the hide and made great viewing, there was a male shoveller present and a fox wandered across the back of the lake           Patch list 64

4^th Feb An early start to try and see some local tawny owls ended in their failure to turn up for me, never mind, another day will find them.

After lunch Les and I walked via the footpath at the top of Green lane down past the allotments and there on the untilled field were 11 yellowhammers, a good number for the patch, a long walk via Radwell brought us back via the hosre meadow adjacent to the disused mill at Nortonbury and we found a flock of about 20  MEADOW PIPITS to round off the week nicely.                    Patch list 65