Kestrel's all over the place.

Merry Christmas to everyone who reads or follows this blog and thanks for your support.

Stayed close to the village today and after having just had my first Kestrel for months i was rewarded with another three today.

The first two were entangled within a hawthorn bush fighting over a recent kill what a racket they were making.

the loser sulking on a telegraph post.

Still lots of frost around and birds starting to struggle to find some food, but not the Redwings and Fieldfare had at least 250 birds only about 25-30 were Redwing.

Continued along the lanes and noticed a large flock of Sparrows but on closer inspection found within the flock were Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Yellowhammer, Dunnock and a Robin.

Moving on I could see a distant GSW and also in the birch trees I could see three birds feeding, I tried to get close but all the birds were a bit flighty today probably due to all the shoots that were taking place in the area.

Having got underneath the birds they seemed to take no notice of me as they were busy feeding.

Decided to try the Carrs at North Duffield as the lanes were getting busy with weekend dog walkers and horseriders.

Just as I arrived so did a flock of upto 150 mixed Canada and Grey lags as well as 3-4 Pink footed geese.

35+ Whoopers still around and the single Black Swan a flock of 250+ Lapwings arrived with 25+ Ruff and the same amount of Dunlin. Shelduck and Pintail flying down the river and a procession of Gulls and Cormorants visible. Sparrowhawk scattered all the Lappies but did not spoil the day.

So the list for the day was Magpie,Rook,Crow,Jackdaw,Woodpigeon,Siskin,Longtailed tit,BlueTit,Great tit, House sparrow,TreeSparrow,Chaffinch,Bullfinch,Greenfinch,Wren,Robin,Dunnock,Starling,Pheasant,Partridge,Redpol,

Moorehen,Coot,Whooper swan,Mute swan, Black swan,Sparrowhawk,Kestrel,Goldfinch,Goldcrest,Ruff,Pintail,Shelduck,GSW,Hen.

And probably some that i have missed.