Temperature records for December were being broken for (last) night and day at various sites throughout the country.
A Sparrowhawk was busying itself around the village first thing.
I made an afternoon visit to Eyebrooke reservoir hoping to see some of the scarcer winter visiting waterbirds. There were plenty of Wigeon and Tufted Duck, at least 15 Goldeneye, but not many Pochard though. After a lot of searching a 'redhead' Smew was found. I did not find the reported Slavonian Grebe though, but again with poor light conditions and choppy water it can be missed fairly easily. There were 20+ Great-crested Grebe and two Little Grebe. I saw eight Little Egret and three Grey Heron around the reservoir edge. Lapwing numbers were pretty good, 1000+ and several hundred Golden Plover were present too.
A kestrel was hunting, a flock of c30 Linnets were feeding in the rough area and a Bullfinch was present in the hedge. c20 Fieldfare flew into a tree top before moving off.
On the way back, just outside Medbourne a barn Owl flew over the road, out hunting in the remaining daylight.
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