Busy with birds in the Cooks Lane area over Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Best concentration was on one of the less-frozen lakes, where I counted:

Mallard c. 160

Canada Goose c . 75

Teal 3

Tufted Duck 1

Cormorant 1

In the hedgerows and fields around Cooks Lane itself, good numbers of Marsh Tits, Coal Tits and Long-tailed Tits, several Fieldfares and Goldcrests, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and a Buzzard or two in the usual conifer wood.

Overhead, Siskin on several occasions and a single Lapwing on one, and one early morning a Tawny Owl giving its hunting call.

The water meadows just north of the Duke’s Head look very good again this spring. A very brief look from the road produced 17 Lapwings, plus several Mallard loafing around.

Presumably regular visits would produce something rarer – perhaps a repeat showing of some of the species seen this time last year.

In Awbridge village itself, Marsh, Long-tailed and Coal Tits all calling in gardens near Cooks Lane, but little else.

(Lapwing shot by Flickr user rhys400D)