Anyone got a boat......?

1030 - 1250 Cloudy, Cool (not cold!), Windy SW f2-3 rain later

Well, if you havent got a fence in your garden (see my garden blog) you will no doubt have lots of water...and theres plenty of it over at the gravel pits....

The ditches are filling up.......

....almost full.....

I was going to cross in to the field (on the left of the fence line) as the footpath (on the right) was covered in water....but decided against it....

....the small gravel pit is becoming bigger....

A view across the main gravel pit, which has now joined up with one in the distance.....if it rains much more there is the possibility of three being joined with a ditch system....

This Willow in the water actually marks the usual waters edge....

This is the causeway (well, narrow path on a bank) that usually separates two gravel pits....but not any more...

Two Mute Swans out in the field....

....and this is the path on to the furthest gravel pit.............

I suppose I did arrive a little late, 1030, but passerines seemed hard to come by during this visit.
It was quiet in the village and took some time to find a Collared Dove.  A Robin finally jingled.
Setting off across the orchard 2 Magpies and a Crow whizzed past in the gusty wind and a Cormorant struggled valiantly heading SW in to the wind.
I decided I would try to count the Fieldfares during the visit as at Moat Farm last winter there was a very good number.  Maybe it was colder then when I saw them but today it amounted to 23!  Very poor.  But then any self respecting thrush would be out in the fields and marshes of Kent and Sussex eating worms rather than messing around an orchard eating apples.  Mind you, most of the windfall apples here seem to have weathered away.
I found 3 Redwings and about 40 Starling.
Woodpigeons whizzed past most of the visit.
A Kestrel mastered the sometimes hardy, blustery wind, its head perfectly still.  They are amazing.
4 Skylark flew and sang low to the ground across the very muddy and slogging fields as the mud mounted up on my boots.
A few Green Woodpeckers blasted past on the high speed wind calling as they went - hard to know if it was a call for help or joy.
In the north field to the east of the footpath 180 Black Headed Gulls were found along with 3 Common Gull.
A Chaffinch called from the hedgerow near the pits.

At the pits:
Black Headed Gull (probably total as they were flighty and spaced out over several fields) 280+, Cormorant 19, Coot 84, Tufted Duck 67, Teal 12, Gadwall 32, Mute Swan 9, Moorhen 4, Mallard 6, Great Crested Grebe 1, Shoveller 4, Little Grebe 1, Snipe 1.....

............and star birds.....Goosander 1.(female)..and I was just thinking I hadnt seen a Lapwing this winter when two flocks came over at the same time, totalling 120+ and they headed SW.

Other birds seen around the pits were Meadow Pipits, Long-tail Tits, Wren, Blue Tit and Blackbird.