What have you seen

Have had the male Hawfinch on the window feeder today and the Goldfinches have to get out of his way and then later the male Middle Spotted Woodpecker turned up on the fat balls and he really has got a great red punk top not on his head. The birds are busy with all the feeders difficult to keep them topped up. Minus 6C this morning brr.

We can hear the woodpeckers starting to drum but haven't seen them much on the feeders.

Male Buffinch chasing female around when I went outside. My sudden presence seemed to startle them and they flew off to opposite sides of the garden. Despite trying to escape the advances of the male it was the female who flew across to join him. 

There was also a lovely little Goldcrest flitting hither and thither, never still for longer than it took to peck at some minute tasty morsel.

Of course, these birds never visit the garden during RSPB birdwatch weekend do they?

Had 2 Greenfinches on the window feeder today and female Hawfinch yesterday and any of them letting the Goldfinches on to feed bigger beaks win.

We saw our first lambs out on the fields today as,we headed towards the motorway. I guess others have seem them already, but there are none out yet around us. There was also field with a large flock of Lapwings, great to see so many.

We have got lambs not far from us and spotted our first lambs in January about 12 miles from home. Not seen any snowdrops yet but the wild hellebores are coming through in the local woods.

Many gardens have Snowdrops in them around our area, and a few with Daffodils and even the odd Crocus too.

We had Bullfinches in the trees behind the caravan this afternoon and there are lots of Grey Squirrels around, including one with a black head, which I have not seen before. We saw 3 GSPs on our morning walk and this afternoon on the mere, among the many gulls, Lapwings and ducks there were 3 pairs of Goosanders, a pair of Widgeon, and numerous long billed, streaked brown, plump waders, which I took to be Snipe. However as they are supposed to be solitary birds, and hard to spot, so I'm not sure. Help needed, so tomorrow's visit might help to clarify that!!😄

Our visiting lone Fieldfare appears to have rejoined the flock, we are seeing them overhead most days and can hear them in the trees, they are quite noisy. I feel the same about winter Fieldfares as I do about summer Swallows. Always pleased to see them arrive and sad to see them go. I've been looking up Fieldfares on the BO site as I wondered how long our lone visitor might survive the journey, it appears the oldest ringed  Fieldfare found so far has been 14 years plus.

I’ve had 5 Goldfinches on the nuts & sunflower hearts today. 4 chaffinches on the mixed seeds on the floor. 2 collared doves that follow each other around gingerly pecking away in a big seed tray until the wood pigeons rock up & shoo them away. The cleaning crew-dunnock & wren skulk around the garden near the feeding stations mopping up errant food🤷🏻‍♂️😊

Just noticed an error on my list yesterday, which I put down to predictive text and me not checking what I have typed. It should have read GSW ie Great Spotted Woodpeckers, which perhaps I should have written out in full at the time!!

It was good to have my observation of Snipe confirmed this morning when out walking with the WNs. We also saw the Goosanders again, and a Tree Creeper during our walk. This afternoon I saw another pair of ducks I can't identify. Both were dappled brown in colour and the one I took to be the male had an orange band on it's shoulder and was orange around the rear too. Anyone any idea?