Angela, myself and Ezio on the patch walk today. We were pleased to see that the path by Springlands which leads down to the fields has been upgraded and you don’t have to take your life in your hands to go down there. 

There was an almost complete absence of wildfowl (for the wetland bird count), single Swan, single Lapwing, only a single Greylag (maybe because of the bird scarer gas gun in the fields to the east?)  two Herons and small groups of Mallards, the most being 22 which flew up from the overflow pit.  But good to see that Stonechats have returned, with one seen on the fields near Rye Farm and two along the river on Sharon & Chris’s farm, where we also had a nice flock of a dozen Linnets. We noted that the awkward stile has been repaired and is now firm and supported by new wood – thanks to Chris & Sharon if it was they who repaired it!

The unknown was a bird Angela caught sight of in a tree in one of the field hedgerows.  I didn’t manage to see it but she said it was streaky with a light eyestripe and after some research wondered if it was a Woodlark as it didn’t quite fit anything else. 

The surprise was a chaffinch-sized bird in a tree by the tin shack, which had the wrong colour breast (orange rather than pink) and turned out to be a lone Brambling. Record shot attached.

A Buzzard flew over, harassed as always by the local crows, we saw a Kestrel perched in the distance while going through the fields, then another eating prey on the path as we came up from New Inn.

iNaturalist identified some fungi as Trooping Crumble Cap, which appeared to be enthusiastically marching along lengths of exposed root.

Thanks to Angela for her spotting skills enabling us to clock up 37 species. Lovely morning for the walk, looks like the weather’s going downhill from tomorrow!