3rd visit....first report....whats around...

I thought I would start off with a few pics of the sight, to capture the snow scene.

This is as view back South towards Moat Farm orchard. This line of Poplars is popular with Chaffinch flocks, though I still havent seen a Brambling there yet!

This ditch runs South-North away from the orchard across half of the arable fields where it meets another running West-East.

A view North East across one of the large arable fields.  There was a cold Easterly today...brrrrr!!...not too bad going, but coming back after lots of standing around looking at birds it was rather ch-ch-chilly!!

Some of the pits at Whetsted Gravel Pits still have open water despite the colder weather of late.....

...whilst others are almost frozen over despite being a similar size.  Beyond the trees in the distance is a small grass field and the River Medway.

This is the third visit to the site, so I will include comment on my previous visits.
0930: Overcast, cold, occasional light snow, Easterly wind.
Most of the expected birds appeared around the entrance to Moat Farm and the surrounding houses; Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Starling, Crow.  Starting to move across the orchard; Magpie, Blackbird, Great Tit, Jay, Fieldfare and Goldfinch, it wasnt until I was walking round the farm buildings that I encountered Chaffinch, Linnet, Redwing and Jackdaw.  A small flock of Redpoll had been here on my first visit. A flock of around 15 Chaffinch were in the Poplars at the northern edge of the orchard, along with a Great Spotted Woodpecker, though no Brambling, my first visit on much warmer January 2nd had produced a larger flock of around 40 Chaffinch.
A Robin was sitting by the bridge leading to the open fields where there was also some Wood Pigeons and a Green Woodpecker.  A Wren tick-ticked before trilling a cold-cold song. Two Song Thrush were here on the return journey.
Off across the fields, the first visit had produced around a dozen Skylark on the eastern side of the footpath, this time I didnt catch up with them till on the way back, this time only 5 were present further north,  I had flushed a Grey Wagtail from the ditch here the first visit and a Snipe on my second visit a few days ago.
The only other thing of note today was a large flock of corvids scattered around the field, there must have been about 250 in total, mostly Jackdaws with some Rooks and Crows.  My second visit had produced a large flock, around 500, Wood Pigeons
Whilst walking toward the gravel pits a Common Gull flew over, I found a further two on the pits.
At the pits I counted a total of 65 Coot, 1 Moorhen, 69 Wigeon, 5 Gadwall, 4 Mute Swan, 31 Tufted Duck, 1 Scaup, 35 Black Headed Gull, 2 Grey Heron, 1 Water Rail, 15 Shoveller, 6 Teal, 200+ Greylag, 1 Egyptian Goose, 2 Goldeneye, 3 Great Crested Grebe, 19 Cormorant, 2 Herring Gull, 2 Common Gull, 10 Lapwing.  My first visit produced Little Egret here along with 2 Little Grebe.  There was a good flock of Long Tail Tit today with a few Great Tit and a solitary Goldfinch as well as one Meadow Pipit.