Snow and birds

A late morning message from Steve had me heading down to the Axe just as the snow started to fall properly (hasn't stopped in the 8 hours since at the time of writing). He'd found a Spoonbill at the lower end of the estuary and when I parked up there were 2 Avocets present as well. There was plenty of movement due to the cold weather and in the short time I was by the estuary triple figure counts of Lapwings of Golden Plovers flew over, a few of which landed by the river. Here are a few dodgy pics taken through the snow:

When driving home to Colyton there were lots of thrushes on the sides of roads with both Redwings and Fieldfares foraging around, as well as hundreds flying overhead in small groups. A couple of walks around Colyton showed a huge increase in Fieldfares around the housing areas, again with triple figure counts showing.

Most of the afternoon was spent taking landscape shots but I wish I'd had a different lens when I walked by St Andrew's Church in Colyton and had 18+ Hawfinches in the Yews. I suspect the actual number was more than this as I saw 18 in the air at once when some moved from one tree to another. They usually use more than one tree so I suspect my count was short of the real number, perhaps even by a lot...

Although the cold weather movement of birds is exciting for birders and the snow is beautiful, it's sad to see so many birds struggling with the temperatures and lack of food. Of course it's just nature, but hopefully not too many things die.

I took loads of landscape pics but will leave you with just one of St Andrew's church with precisely zero Hawfinches visible: