Southfields Farm.

Great trip as always to Southfields Farm in Coleshill this morning where despite some early wind and rain the morning actually turned out be one blessed with blue skies and even some winter sunshine.

Among the highlights was the sighting of eight Yellowhammer (four male and four female), there were probably more as they were darting from the hedgerow to the winter supplementary food John the Farmer puts down for them and back to the hedgerow and back again, there were definitely eight though as they were seen all at the same time, this was especially pleasing as I met John in one of the fields at the beginning of the walk and he said he hadn't seen many this year as I haven't either, the same could also be said for Reed Bunting but they were present in double figures at the same location, in separate parts of the farm there were two flocks of c.50 Chaffinch, unusually both flocks only contained Chaffinch where this time of the year I would expect to seem mixed flocks, maybe that's down to the fact we haven't had many sub zero temperature nights this winter, talking of flocks of birds it was great to see a flock of c.100 Linnet, they are spread out across the farm this year so again I would say there were definitely more, much less in number but equally as pleasing was sighting of a small flock of Siskin, finally all around the farm, Skylark could be seen and heard, which is always a good sign of good farming practices with birds and nature taken into consideration.

Birds seen today were, Yellowhammer, Siskin, Linnet, Reed Bunting, Skylark, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Starling, Collared Dove, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Stock Dove, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Grey Heron and Moorhen. 

Also seen flying overhead were Cormorant which is a timely reminder as I won't be reporting any more sightings of them as 'anglers' read reports online of their locations and then kill them because they have the audacity to kill birds to survive where so called 'anglers' catch fish for sport.

Other wildlife seen today were Rabbit and Hare, seeing a Hare is especially exciting as I don't see them very often and they are great to watch when they are in full flow.