Tuesday 31st January

Cloudy (Wintry Showers am), E 1>3

A bitterly cold day and apart from the usual species at Cortonwood, the only other notable sighting was that of a single Lesser Black-backed Gull NE over the garden.

Birds : January / Year - 71. That`s a whole 2 species more than this time last year. It could have been more had it not been for the absence of : Great Crested Grebe, Wigeon, Teal, Peregrine, Snipe & Kingfisher.

To make this post that little bit longer, i`ll add the highlights from this month ;

Water Rail : 1 calling from the Post Office Pond on 1st, 1 flushed from one of the lake inflows on 4th & 1 calling from the stream adjacent to the TPT on 26th.
Shoveler : Recorded regularly on the Lake from 2nd, with a max of 9 there on 28th.
Pochard : Max counts were of 4 birds on the Lake on 6th & 9th.
Tufted Duck : Max count was of 37 birds on the lake on 30th.
Tawny Owl : A pair calling from the Spoil Heap on the evenings of 10th & 11th, and a single bird calling close to the back garden on the morning of 29th.
Pink-footed Goose : 4 skeins totalling c775 birds over on 14th > 16th.
Merlin : 1 S over the garden on 15th was without doubt the bird of the month.
Coot : A colour-ringed bird (from either Cheshire or Lancashire) present on the Lake from 18th to the months end.
Goosander : Max count of 7 birds on the Lake on 19th.
Gadwall : 1 drk on the Lake on 20th.
Buzzard : A very poor month, with only a single SW over the garden on 23rd.
Goldeneye : 1 female on the lake on 25th was only my 2nd patch record.
Cormorant : Max count was of 19 birds W over the garden on 28th.
Redshank : 1 calling over the garden (early morning) on 28th.

So what can i expect from February ? Well, apart from the aforementioned missing species for this month, there`s every chance of passage Curlew, Skylark & Meadow Pipit.
And depending on the weather, there could be my first Butterflies of the year, along with some more Moths to add to the 4 species i`ve already recorded.