Water, water everywhere.....

0900 - 1100 dry, some sun to start clouding to light shower, cold SW f1-3

….and very....VERY....wet....

...above is the view south toward Five Oak Green....this is the easy part of the walk....then you get to the very interesting 300m of ploughed field which is...more like....a bog....and you end up with one ton boots when you get to the other side....!!!

Below is West Pit....the pit itself is the other side of the bund, on the right....on the left of the bund used to be scrub before they decided that this is where the vehicles would proceed in collecting gravel in the coming years.....

….so this is he result of them putting in the bund.....nice one....

Above is the footpath round to the wooden bridge, so I didn't venture along it.....this is certainly the most flooded the pits have been since I have been watching there.....

Meanwhile, below, round at Island Pit this is the scene to get to the metal bridge.....the Mute Swans are enjoying it along with a Coot....

Enough of the floods....the birds are far more interesting.....

At the orchard a Sparrowhawk put up some Fieldfare, Redwing and Chaffinches from the northerly tree line....a Grey Wagtail was again in the ditch running south to north from the orchard....

Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were across the field though not in the numbers previously counted....one Skylark was courageous enough to have a sing....

Looking south from Island Pit some gulls, including the only Common Gull, were out in the field along with a Little Egret...

Island Pit itself held a flock of around 100 Geese, a few Canadas, mostly Greylag....and.....the escape Barnacle flock, below, that make occasional appearances....

West Pit was home to a few Pochard, though the total for the site was around 20.  The only female Goldeneye was here as well. Shovelers are scattered over three pits, West, Middle and Island but certainly nowhere near the usual winter numbers at the moment....

On Middle Pit, with the Cormorants up in an Oak tree, it left a good number of Black-headed Gulls and the usual ducks....three Teal made an appearance which is always pleasing, they over winter here in small numbers.....a Buzzard mad hard work of crossing the pit from eat to west, putting up the gulls, alarming the Corvids and being endlessly mobbed by both....as if the heavy wind wasn't enough to contend with....!

Bird of the day....possibly year....2 Northern Pintal, one male one female....I think this is the first record for me here....

Northern Pintal

Meadow Pipit

A good end to the year....