December 9th 2011

Yesterday’s strong winds finally brought in some new arrival to the pond with the arrival of a female Red-breasted Merganser and 3 Pintail.

Record shot of the Pintail by Bob Hazel which with the low water level was miles away.
The merganser was off farnborough bank eventually flying to rainbow corner while the 2 male and one female Pintail were off saddle bank feeding. A single Tree Sparrow was found among the 150+ Linnets on the seed strip behind the inlet. Only other birds of note were female Common Scoter, 19 Golden Plover over, 12 Goosander on the reservoir and 2 Raven seen from the country park while looking for SEO's in the valley.
This afternoon Brandon Marsh had Coal Tit, Marsh Tit, Great-spotted Woodpecker, 3 Snipe and 22 Golden Plover and there are still only 19 Mute Swan in the Avon valley between Bretford and Church lawford. No sign of any geese as we drove past.

Richard