30th Jan 2016

I had a pretty good walk around this morning, but despite a few nice bits here and there it seemed really quiet. Fro example I couldn't find any tit flocks in the wood, the big Redwing flock that was feeding in the cattle fields has apparently gone and I hardly saw any finches (other than Siskins).

There were two Tufted Ducks on the reservoir, which are the first ones I've seen here this year. A Kingfisher and Sparrowhawk were seen along the river, thankfully not at the same time! Around eight Siskin flew over to the wood, but when I got to the wood I found there was actually around thirty birds feeding in there. There were several new Otter spraints under the railway so there has been some activity over the last week or so.

In the Upper Cherwell Valley there were two Teal and a Snipe along the river and a Greylag Goose with the Canada Geese. A fairly decent gathering of Herring Gulls (c.30) was in the fields over the river, just into Northamptonshire but viewing well them was near impossible and by the time I had walked back and driven around to that side they had gone.

Mike has written about the progress of planning for a country park in the valley (see here) and it sounds great. I hope it works out and we get some well managed areas for wildlife.