Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Back to the Patch

After an excellent day on Friday "Twitching" the American Robin in Eastbourne (see previous post) it was back to the patch Saturday, as you might expect it was a bit "after the Lord Mayor's show" but to be fair was a bit better than it has been of late!!

Got on site about 7.30am, the first field was empty though did spook a Roe Deer the other side of the stream and the local Buzzard gave a flypast.

Common Buzzard, as you can tell very poor light so most pics are rubbish, that is my excuse and I'm
sticking to it 😀

The Glades were very muddy, wellies required, nice pair of Long-tailed Tits which showed really well feeding in a low bush!

Too many pics? Well they are cute, any way moved on through the Glades and out on to the patch proper, pretty quiet, quite a few Wrens noted but they were very quick and not in the mood to pose, flock of Starlings and a very bright Goldfinch the highlights, were quite a few Great and Blue Tits about, with the Great Tits singing a lot!!!

Goldfinch

I wandered around the area without much success, headed out on to Church Lane, the large field this time last year full of Fieldfares and Redwings was empty except for a flock of 20 or so Geese, I gave em a good grilling in case of a stray Whitefront or Pinkfoot but sadly were all feral Greylags!! Fieldfares and Redwings are notable by their absence this year, hopefully due to mild weather on the continent and oop north rather than anything sinister!

Part of the Goose Flock

At the Church the large dead tree has been felled, presumably Health & Safety reasons, a shame as it was home to a pair of Stock Doves and often had Mistle Thrushes perched atop it! There were a couple of Jays here and a distant Kestrel hovered in Sunbeams which looked a lot more ethereal in real life than my picture captures!!

Jay

Kestrel in Sunbeams looked a lot more "arty" in real life!!

Another crack at it!!

So back on the Patch more Wrens a few Blackbirds and a couple of Song Thrushes, all very flighty and unwilling to pose, then the bird I was hoping for put in an appearance announcing himself with soft calls, a Bullfinch briefly on top of a Hawthorn Bush think there were a couple due to to the location of various calls, also a very vocal Nuthatch dropped into the bush and I used my new found manual focusing "skills" honed in the previous day's Little Bunting encounter (see yesterday's post) to attempt a picture with limited success!!😂

Nuthatch

Typical view of a Bullfinch flying away, grey back with white rump!

Bullfinch

That was about it really the walk back was more of the same, saw a Chaffinch which is sadly not a common sight anymore and did hear but not see a Greenfinch, quite a few Blue Tits and Great Tits about which was nice to see and hear, were a couple of Buzzards interacting in the sky as well so maybe love is in the air!!