The Brecks - 31st January 2024

An outing to the Brecks with a first stop at Cockley Cley in the hope of seeing displaying Goshawks. Lots of Buzzards, Red Kites and Pigs but sadly no Goshawks during our watch. So next stop was Lynford Arboretum. After a coffee it was a case of scanning "the tunnel" where a number of smaller birds were coming down to feed and/or drink. It was rather gloomy so not great for photography. A few Brambling were present and a couple of Yellowhammer, including this one.

Another visitor was this Great Spotted Woodpecker.

A few Redwings were moving around and it was good to get one come down to drink next to a Song Thrush.

But the star of the tunnel area was this Hawfinch who favoured the far end!

It is always a good place to walk around and the emerging Snowdrops were a nice bonus.

On to the bridge and there were around 9 or 10 Crossbills high up in the trees.

Fortunately, one of the males briefly came down lower.

It was time to use the "Alan Reynold's mossy log on a bridge" trick and get some images of the birds coming in to feed, starting with Robin, Blackbird and Chaffinch.

The above bird was obviously suffering with a diseased foot, possibly papillomatosis.

Always good to get five species of Tit in a day (no pictures of Long Tailed, but here are some Blue and Great Tits.

The Coal Tits were trickier, flying in and out very quickly.

Marsh Tits are tricky to find now in Hertfordshire but thankfully still fairly common at Lynford.

A great few hours and as two White Tailed Eagles had been reported nearby in Stowlangtoft we popped by to see if we could spot them. Two male birds, one from the Isle of Wight and one from the Netherlands had been there for a few days. We had a brief distant fly past by one of them and then when it was nearly dark one flew in to attempt to roost literally 50 yards away before flying to one of their favoured trees. What an end to a fabulous day.