Local Wander

Having enjoyed a quick coffee in town, I wandered back to the village along footpaths now showing some good autumnal colour. To begin with it looked like rain, but this held off. Along the path leading to Cradle End were plenty of long tailed tits in the hedge along with good numbers of dunnock, chaffinch and a few goldfinches.

long tailed tit

Another ltt but light was so poor, hardly worth bothering

From here, I wandered along Green Street where another large party of mixed birds were found. 50+ chaffinches, 20+ fieldfare, a goldcrest and mixed tits were in or around a stubble field. A robin sang here, too.

Further along, in Millfield Lane, I took the footpath with young willows on one side. This leads to the polo fields. Here, both in the the willows and on the fields were big numbers of birds. First noticed were 100+ yellowhammers, seed feeding, whilst feeding on the grass of the polo pitch were 30+ pied wagtails and 30+ meadow pipits. The latter is not a common bird for this parish and as such, this number constitutes the largest congregation of mipits that I have recorded. Green woodpeckers, various corvids and a common buzzard were also about.

yellowhammer on the ridge of local cottage

1 of the 100 yellowhammers present at Millfield Lane

meadow pipit, 1 of 30+

As I wandered down Brick Kiln Hill the colours around the village were amazing, with this view being particularly pleasant.