18th Nov - grass frost. sunny spells, light SW/W wind, cool 6C

Fairly quite around the village today, a Great-spotted Woodpecker was on the peanuts and a Green Woodpecker was heard this morning.

For the last two days a ringtail Hen Harrier has been seen briefly near Stanford reservoir, also today Whooper Swans were reported there, so it seemed a good idea to explore the area.  Not knowing where the Whoopers were exactly I decided to have a look at he dam end first.  Not there, plenty of the usual birds though, so I moved to the inlet end.  A quick scan and there they were, out on the water, I moved a little closer to view and get some record photos, but not too close to alarm them.  There were seven Whoopers, five adults and two 1st winter birds (born this year).  It has been many, many years since I had seen Whoopers at Stanford reservoir.

I then moved over the lane to view the valley where the Hen Harrier had been seen, my hope was it would fly in on the way to a roost site along the valley.  At 1540 it did fly past, heading along the valley, good views if brief.  I decide to wait in case it should return, whilst doing so, a Peregrine flew over slowly and at 1550h the Whoopers Swans were seen flying eastward and out of view.

So, all together good sightings were had.