Wetland ticks and Patch Winter Thrushes

With the weather not exactly inviting me for a walk Saturday, I decided to do a couple of pit stops at the local wetland patches, ostensibly to see if the cold front had brought in anything of interest, but failing that to a least wrack up a few more year ticks.
Sling Pool floods Grimley had very good numbers of ducks and Canada Geese. Wigeon and Gadwall were abundant, as were the Lapwings too. Unfortunately no Golden Plover but a nice Siskin flock showed well with some corking males.The new workings were similar but colder, and a there was the odd snow flurry as I left, unable to locate a Goldeneye that had been about recently.
I then popped to Upton to see if I could connect with the Jack Snipe that has been about for a while now. There were 30 or more Common Snipe showing pretty well, and after about half and hour of on/off looking I picked up Jack the lad, a species I didn't connect with last year, so pretty pleasing( but no pic possible ).A pair of Shelduck was a year tick to.

                                                     Bit of Wetland action
A flock of Lesser Redpolls showed well on the east track, and I managed a snap in the poor light.

Lesser Redpoll, Upton

As is my mantra until things pick up later in the year, the car was rested on the Sabbath  and I undertook a 3 hour walk around both sides of the patch.A bit of BTO survey work was in mind.  The frost had hardened up the mud, making it much more pleasant underfoot. The leading impression from the walk was that there was a significant influx of winter Thrushes onto the patch. Redwing, Mistle Thrushes and most importantly, a few Fieldfare in 2 of the 3 groups on the paddocks gave me the only addition to mt patch year list.

Mistle Thrush and Redwing, missed the pesky Fieldfare !

 Also of note was a party of Goldcrests in the adjacent plantation and the Meadow Pipit flock was up to double figures and came quite close.

Meadow Pipit on Paddocks

Over on the North side of the patch, again, Redwing Flocks feeding on the ground. The first I have seen over there this winter, making me think this was related to the predicted bad weather of the next few days. In the Mill Garden, a large garrulous flock of birds , mainly Siskin, but associated with them,Tits, a Nuthatch and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. A very lively and colourful end to a most enjoyable patch tour.