Tuesday 15th Feb 2011 - Shenstone

Today I decided to brave the dull wet weather conditions and pay a long over due visit to my patch.

My first port of call was Witch Lane. 5 Stock Doves and 19 Linnets were in the stubble field opposite the old grainstore. In the fields further up the lane were 2 Lapwings, 2 Canada Geese, 4 Linnets and 1 Skylark.

I then moved on to the Butts Lane triangle where a mixed flock of buntings were feeding. In total I counted 7 Reed Buntings and 9 Yellowhammers. 23 Linnets were also present in this area.

A very quiet Heath Lane was my next stop off where the only birds of note were 12 Redwings in the trees next to the paddock and 2 Common Buzzards.

From Heath Lane I headed along Stanklyn Lane and did a walk around the fields at Summerfield. This was by far the most productive area with a flock of 300+ Linnets present! This is by far the largest single flock of Linnet I have ever recorded on my patch. Also present were c.80 Chaffinch and with them was the Brambling that I have recorded on/off since November. Also, 8 Meadow Pipits were feeding 'on the plough' and a Grey Heron flew over.

My final stop was stanklyn Lane paddocks which held a charm of c.60 Goldfinch, 3 Yellowhammers, 1 Mistle Thrush, 4 Fieldfare, 2 Redwing, a Green Woodpecker and 2 cock Pheasants.

All in all a pleasing afternoon's birding and well worth braving the crappy weather for.

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