Albino Squirrel

Ryarsh Church: Something white sat at the edge of the wood. Unsure as to what it could be, I kept an eye on it and eventually its movement gave it away. Lovely to see a grey squirrel looking so beautiful and graceful. It was being chase around an ancient oak by a normal coloured individual and the two of them made for quite a sight on the leafless tree.

Murmuration

I am frequently observing an unusual murmuration in the early evening. The number of birds is not great, somewhere between sixty and one hundred. It starts with a smaller group but new arrivals quickly join in. The flight patterns simulate what larger groups attain with sudden changes of direction and altitude, BUT, these birds are not starlings: they are JACKDAWS.
They display like this over the field where are have been getting a last minute feed, they do not roost here but in local woods.

Partridges

Went for a late afternoon walk yesterday and was surprised to see up to thirty partridges rising from a field of rape. They were clearly about to settle to a communal roost. I only saw them in flight but assume them to be the red-legged variety and I can only hope some of them survive the shooting season to breed come the spring. Having previously only seen the group of five that habitually forage on the field in front of the house, I had not expected there to be more.
Lots of fieldfares and redwings feeding on the haws in the hedgerow behind the house.

Field of birds

With newly emerging green shoots of wheat, the field in front of the house is proving to be very attractive to the local birds. I regularly see large flocks (up to sixty individuals) of species such as, jackdaw, crow, feral pigeons. There are also, smaller flocks of skylarks and linnets(thirty birds); red legged partridge, pheasant, fieldfare and meadow pipit. It is quite astonishing that the should be such a large and varied source of food in just one field.
Redwings have now joined the fieldfares as our usual winter migrants.

Winter Migrants

Yesterday I heard the first distinctive call of over-flying fieldfares. This morning, some were feeding on the hawthorn berries in the hedgerow.
A grey wagtail feeding on insects round a large puddle at Sutton Valence.

Singing Skylarks

A flock of around thirty skylarks has descended upon the stubble fields in front of the house. With this unseasonably warm weather, they have been induced to sing, which is a very welcome addition to the sound scape here.
Along with the pheasants, it appears that quite a few partridge have recently been released on the estate and I have seen at least three separate coveys over the last few days.

Goshawk

A small flock of birds flew noiselessly overhead. Not an unusual occurrence, but then I noticed that one of the flock was quite different from the rest. It soon became clear that what I was watching was a flock of about eight jackdaws (strange for them to be silent) surrounding a bird of prey. Too big to be a sparrow hawk it could only have been a goshawk.

Heard a skylark briefly giving song this morning from the mist.