The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Whether there are more varieties visiting my garden in Welbourn this winter or whether, now I'm retired, I'm spending longer at the kitchen sink during daylight hours but I've seen a tree creeper (only other time was back in '89), a bull finch and, vying for top place, a lesser redpoll (present for two weeks but disappeared as the snow came) and all this week a woodcock so well camouflaged by the leaves which I had never got around to clearing up however his camouflaging didn't work so well in the snow!
Thanks to Chris Grimshaw for confirming my identification of the latter two.
Barbara

Bother! Having just posted the earlier entry, I see a splash outside the patio window and a heron is sitting in the pond with one of my fish in its mouth. Flew before I could get a photo. The pond is only 4 x 6 ft and surrounded by pots and has a big polystyrene thing in it to keep an area clear of ice. It's also only 5 ft away from the house wall. He must have been hungry.

Glad you are enjoying retirement Barbara. You are certainly getting some good birds in the garden,
I would love to see a Woodcock in ours!
If you value the fish in the pond it will need protecting well as the Grey Heron will surely return!

Roy

Barbara, the woodcock in the leaf litter was probably there because the litter keeps the frost off the ground and the woodcock can get there bills into the ground i had 2 under a garden bush with a lot of leaf litter i always leave, and it was wonderful to see them getting the full length of bills into the ground and finding food. regards John