Wednesday 18th January

What with it still be frozen and also gloomy I didn't venture out yesterday but with today's much milder temperatures I sallied forth once more to the floods. There were plenty of birds around though nowhere near the pre-freeze numbers - presumably they'll build up again quickly enough. On the wader front there was one REDSHANK and the two RUFF as well as a large (1000+) flock of golden plover. The usual duck species were about though only a handful of PINTAIL. The gull roost was very poor today with only a few dozen large gulls to look at. A grey heron on the floods was a patch year tick as was the TUFTED DUCK(S) that Adrian Gray reported recently up in Wolvercote (presumably in the Gullet).

The two ruff, digiscoped in poor light