Pype Hayes Park.

It's always good to make a trip to Pype Hayes Park, especially on a cold crisp morning like today. Birds spotted were, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Nuthatch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Starling, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Redwing, Song Thrush, Jackdaw, Pied Wagtail and Mute Swan. Even though I saw plenty of Redwing, I was watching some on one side of the brook (the golf club side) when all of a sudden one hundred plus Redwing took to the skies, along with at least another one hundred plus songbirds, possibly spooked by a raptor, even though I didn't see one but is a very wooded area. I also saw two Grey Heron, one in a tree above the brook, the other in a tree overlooking some houses, probably waiting to plunder someones pond. Unusually I saw a pair of Nuthatch on the same tree trunk today, which was nice as was seeing plenty of mixed flocks of tits. The fishing pool was almost completely froze over with there only being a small free section of water for the two Mute Swans and a handful of Mallards, who enjoyed the brown bread all the same, most of the birds, including the other Mute Swans have relocated to the nearby but much larger Plantsbrook Nature Reserve. On a personal note, I've actually spotted some Song Thrush in the garden as well as the winter resident, the Pied Wagtail who loves the mealworms, crumbs and small seeds, it's great to watch it surveying the garden with it's tail bobbing up and down. Finally there's more bad news concerning the HS2 high-speed rail link.