This morning I spent two hours out and about around Avon Dassett, a few mile north of Banbury, participating in the
BOS Winter Random Square Survey. This involves spending 2 hours counting all the birds you can find in a 1km square. Sometimes the two hours can drag a bit by the end, but this morning, in glorious sunshine, there were plenty of birds about, helped by a reasonable diversity of habitats within my allotted square - a leafy village, parkland, scrub, arable farmland, pasture and tall hedgerows.
Having spend a bit of time yesterday checking potential Hawfinch sites locally without further success, I was not particularly expecting to find any on the survey. So it was a very pleasant surprise when, after about ten minutes, one popped up on top of a nearby tree, bathed in the morning sunlight, a great view but almost immediately it was off....
I managed to find a total of 38 species, including a pair of Ravens, a flock of about fifty Skylarks, five Yellowhammers and plenty of Redwings and Linnets.
Fieldfares have become noticeably more common in the past week or so, this bird was guarding an apple tree, fending off blackbirds when it could.
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| Fieldfare near Edgcote |
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| Mute Swan, Wroxton College |
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| Grey Heron searching for food in a field of winter wheat near Thenford |
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| Edgcote Church and Yew trees |
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