Sunday 11th January

After yesterday's excitiment I was able to get out for a 3 hour stint from 9.15am. I parked up at Lunsford Lane hoping for another sighting of the Jack Snipe. Although it had been seen early on I couldn't track it down. I did see 2 Lesser Redpoll along the road here shortly after bumping into Adam who was also trying to track the Jack Snipe down.

Robin

Wandering from here I headed towards the scrape where I saw a Common Snipe and 4 Lapwing. On towards the Bittern area I had a scan of the frozen pit, no sign of Bittern but I did see a Treecreeper - a difficult bird to get at New Hythe sometimes.

Lapwing

On around the West Scrub I added Goldcrest and a Rook over. Through the East Scrub where there were lots of common finches I crossed the railway. I scanned Abbeymead and on the open water I saw a redhead Goosander (I later heard that the Goosander on Alders was there around the same time so this looks like a second bird for the area)

Common Gull

The water was high on the river and the only birds of note were a good numbers of Teal. Another Rook came over low and several Bullfinch were calling. A Sparrowhawk came over low.

Around Brooklands Lake I was scanning for Bittern (seen here over the weekend by others) but didn't add anything new.

Along the Millstream a Cettis called briefly (only the second I have heard this year) but I didn't see anything else of note. Back over the mound by the scrape I had some good views of the male Stonechat. A Kingfisher also wizzed past along the Millstream.Wren

I had a brief look in the small wood by the Country Park carpark and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming, close by another was drumming loudly on a pylon. Another Kingfisher was along the Millstream along Lunsford Lane as I was checking again for the Jack Snipe.