** Marsh Road, Halling, Wednesday 14/12/2016. **

Yesterday, Wednesday 14th December I took a stroll down to Marsh Road The cattle have been taken out of their field and all of the straw bales have turned to mush and with the amount of standing water that there is has made it ideal for the birds. I stood where I normally do, by the metal gate. The birds that first caught my eye was Moorhen, the was a good number spread out I counted 22. There was the usual Mallards knocking about, but what I was surprised to see was 11 TEAL, this is a bird that I see very rarely, normally one or two on the river, as long as the water level stays as it is now I can't see them leaving for a while. Along 2 sides of the field is a good number of large berry bushes, which are ideal for winter thrushes, and I wasn't disappointed, what first caught my eye was a flock of birds on the ground and after a close scan through them I saw that they was Starling, FIELDFARE and REDWING. There was more of thrushes mixed in with the Starlings than I realised. I kept my eye on them on and off while checking out the rest of the field to see what might be about, There was the usual Pied Wagtail picking about in the straw, but what I didn't expect to see was a GREY WAGTAIL. This a bird that I have very rarely seen in Halling, the last one I saw was in my back garden a couple of winters ago after a heavy snow fall.
When I went back to check out the winter thrushes they was in one of the bushes feeding along with a Mistle Thrush and a couple of Blackbirds. While looking in this area a couple more Moorhens flew in and as they landed at the far edge of the field something caught my eye, it was way back just visible, It was a bird that I haven't seen here before, it was a SNIPE but it didn't hang aroud for long, and finally a Kestrel made a brief appearance hunting in the adjoining field.
There was another good bird feeding in this field which I often see and that is a LITTLE EGRET. The other birds in this area was a male Pheasant, Carrion Crow, Magpie C/Dove, Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Robin,House Sparrow.
As I made my way back up Marsh Road a small flock of Blue Tits and Long Tailed Tits was flittering about in the tree tops.
I have to pick a Bird Of The day after seeing so many good birds, but there is really only one bird and that is the ** SNIPE.**