Cholmondoley Estate Local Patch

 Tawny Owl 

 Robin 

 Robin 

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Had a couple of hours on one of our local patches today. The weather was bitterly cold on the short walk from the car to the Hide on Deer Park Mere.  I spotted a large lump that is not normally there in the top of one of the Pines, a closer inspection confirmed it was a Tawny Owl.

At the hide I could see, as I had expected, 80% of the Mere was frozen over meaning the Goosander and Goldeneye, that I was hoping to photograph were at the other end of the Mere, so no luck there.  A cold but pleasant walk through the woods was more productive than expected, providing me views of a very mobile Flock of 80+ Siskin. Amongst them at least 3 Redpoll which was nice. The only other sighting of note were 5 Brambling in leaf litter under a couple of large Beech trees.