Still wet and fairly mild for the first couple of weeks, then it turned drier over Christmas and the water levels receded just a little.
Wintering Chiffchaffs were back on the Rye Farm track pools by the 5th, none looked like Siberian Chiffs, together with a Grey Wagtail (or two), pottered round the patch on the 8th.  Surprisingly it didn’t rain, but the “limbo” path was under water so viewing was from the railway line and a venture into the fields through the kissing gate.  So much water that the wildfowl were pretty well spread out, but estimated 265 Canada Geese, 64 Greylags, 360 Wigeon, 175 Teal (actually that’s too low!), 40 Pintail and 42 Shoveler.  Didn’t notice any Lapwings as there wasn’t much grass visible for them to stand on. Two Cetti’s heard in this section. A flock of round 500 Starlings flew across the railway line. Several Pied Wags were calling in the Stretham area; a pair of Stonechats, cronk of a Raven and 4 more Cetti’s along the river. I heard 4 Song Thrushes singing before I got to the point where I need to start counting for the Birdwatch survey, then another 5 en route.  Funny how we struggled to find one on our Bird Race walk in January!

Liz T had a giant bumblebee buzzing around her house on the 11th.  She also has a talent for finding disgusting things, and treated us to a photo of some “dog sick slime mould” (not reproduced here!)
There was an astonishing number of c100 Egyptian Geese seen by John C by Betley Bridge on the 17th. 
On Boxing Day Crawley birder Alastair paid a visit to Henfield, and came up with the amazing tally of 7 Tundra Bean Geese,13+ Russian White-fronted and 4 Barnacle Geese on flood, plus a Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Dunlin, 88 Lapwings, 69 Pintail, 91 Shovelers, a Black Swan and female Peregrine. 
On the 27th between Rye & Buckwish there were a few Gadwall among the Pintail, Shovelers etc – they seem to like it there. Also a raucous flock of Starlings and Fieldfares, with some Redwings, feeding on the berries in the hedgerow on the track leading west. The next day, walking along the river, Ezio and I met Nick P and Barclay – Nick reckons there are lots of Snipe and Jack Snipe around (probably courtesy of Barclay). Then saw Kristina who had just seen a Kingfisher flying towards Betley Bridge. Naturally I didn’t see any of these niceties, all I could manage was a count of 72 Egyptian Geese with several hundred Canadas & Greylags to the SE of the bridge.