January 6th 2009

I attracted strange looks from a passing patrol car as I walked up to nearby Cock Roundabout but I could not resist going out at 3am looking for owls under a blanket of snow that had fell overnight. The snowy scene gave enough light to pick out 2 Tawny Owl, one in flight and one perched.
The snow continued on and off till mid –day so decided to do the roost late afternoon at the pond and though down to -2c it was very productive with adult Glaucous Gull along with 2 adult and first winter Yellow-legged Gull. More fun was had below draycote bank with a Woodcock out in the open looking for soft ground and a Roe Deer in the third field next to Draycote village attracting attention from some late walkers. The Goosander roost reached an impressive 76 with 44 male and 32 female with the majority coming in at dusk. The 2 Great-northern Diver, female Common Scoter and male Smew off draycote bank while the gaudy were represented by a female Mandarin in biggen bay near lin croft point. Duck numbers are still increasing with Goldeneye reaching 47 and Gadwall 34 while 1400 Fieldfare and 500 Redwing were moving south.

Richard