13th Feb - cloudy cool start, light east wind, remained dull with drizzle/light rain shower pm, 4C

At the local lake this morning a pair of Little Grebes were displaying and 2 Song thrush were singing.  There was a roving Tit flock working the bushes, with them was a Treecreeper.

Mid-day there was ~100 Fieldfare and 20 Redwing feeding on the pastures to the east of the village.

The weather was pretty miserable during the afternoon and with few gulls at Shawell I decided to go for the Green-wing Teal that had re-appeared at Daventry reservoir after being absent for a few days since I last tried to find it and failed (6th Feb).

Making my way to the grit trap pool I was able to find the Green-winged Teal resting under the willows on the far side, fortunately it soon became mobile swimming around the pool and coming closer giving good views and a chance for some record photos.  The most obvious plumage difference for the drake to our Eurasian Teal is the white vertical stripe on its side, you can compare in the second photo below. The female of the two species are practically indistinguishable in the field.

In the area were at least 15 Siskin feeding high up on the Alder, several Son Thrushes were present and singing, a pair of Bullfinch were in the Blackthorn, the male performing his quite song to the female. On the main reservoir 3 Goosander and 3 Shoveler were present and over 20 Great crested Grebes.  In all I spotted 34 bird species in the area I explored, I;m sure there's more wildlife here to find during the Spring and beyond

Blackthorn has been seen in flower for several weeks, has it ever been this early?