Report from Roger Lane. (31th January 2010)

"I crept out this afternoon when it got warm enough, same old places, birds only slightly different.
Started at Menabilly Barton car-park under mud. Found the flock of 50+, Chaffinches, then two 'unknowns' flew overhead with diagnostic flight, which turned out to be 2 x SKYLARKS (another year tick) before the end of January !
Back to Kilmarth and was surprised to see a single flock of 25+ Ravens, equalling my personal record for S.C'wall (25+ at Trenarren, April 2009?). Probably gathered at a carcass (or sheep lambing) since all wheeling over one field. Also in the vicinity were: 20+, Lapwings; 30+, Fieldfares and 2 x STOCKDOVES (another year tick for me).
St.Andrews Pond had 7+, Teal; 1 x Shoveler and 3 x Tufted Ds (better than Par Beach Pool !). At the Pool I could find only 1+, Snipe and 5+ Tufted Ds. Par Bay, in contrast to yesterday, was ruffled with wind, and although I found 7 x GCGrebes there appeared to be only 1 x GNDiver."

Thanks for the reports Roger. As you know we have been around the Somerset Levels for a day. A condensed version is....we saw 70 plus species of birds and four of them were life ticks.