Out And About Locally......

Fieldfare.

Song Thrush.

Robin.

Firstly today,a drive around locally looking to see if i could relocate the Waxwing flock from Monday didn't see me finding them,but i did manage to find a single bird with Redwings and Fieldfares at Melton Ross,which showed briefly before disappearing into the village.After picking Trace up from work i headed over to Barton to see what i could find.I parked at the visitor centre and walked along Far-Ings road and up to the old visitor centre.With a distinct drop in numbers of winter thrushes being noticeable today,several birds were still giving superb views and i managed a few shots.Good numbers of gulls were flying down to bathe on the new pits after feeding on a newly ploughed field,but nothing unusual could be found amongst the Common and Black-headed Gulls.A walk around to Bridge Pit revealed a single Bittern flying the full length of the pit before disappearing into its reedy world,a nice sight and my first for several months.The main reason for me visiting today was to see if the Starling roost would be gathering at dusk and i waited with anticipation for the birds to fly in.While waiting,an adult male Marsh Harrier gave great views as it hunted the reedbeds before heading off to the west,no doubt to roost on the upper Humber and a flock of 24 Waxwing headed over the river and into Yorkshire to roost.Then as it slowly progressed towards dusk the Starlings began to appear and they put on a fairly impressive performance,if not a little brief,with at least 5 or 6000 birds present.The majority of birds were flying in and settling straight to roost,probably due to the lack of predators or perhaps it was the cold conditions.An enjoyable,but freezing cold few hours around my old patch.