Sunday 4th. December 2011

Only managed to get out for a short while yesterday , so headed for Hayes Farm . Fortunately , I had several layers on , as , in the open the wind was extremely lazy . Compared to other years , the farmer has left very little in the fields where in the late Summer and Autumn , people came to 'Pick their Own' , just one small stand of the remains of the Maize crop . Normally there is a large area of Brussel Sprouts which would attract Finch flocks and several different passerines , but not this year . I seem to remember there were large quantities of sprouts left on the plants last year , they must be going out of favour these days . Gull numbers are increasing on every visit , mainly Black-headed , but more and more Common Gulls are being seen . Likewise the Corvids , mainly Crows and Jackdaws , but a few Rooks also coming down on the horse paddocks , which also still hold good numbers of Pied Wagtails , working hard , breaking open the horse droppings . I could hear dogs barking as I approached the Trout Fishery , and found a training class going on in the field just before the Fishery . I'm not sure just who was training who , as the person I assume was the instructor , spent more time shouting commands at dogs in the back of a car than the dogs that were under training . There was no sign of the female Long-tailed Duck when I arrived , nor of the Wigeon that seemed as if they might stay for some time . Scanning the far corner  found the 2 Little Grebes along with a few Tufted Ducks and the large number of Coots and Moorhens . Then , as if from nowhere ,

 the Long-tailed Duck just appeared and started diving for food , she is the tiny speck in the middle of this shot , almost at the far bank , an area that she seems to favour .As luck would have it , the bailiff was on site talking to an angler on the bank to the left , but then the two of them walked to the corner then along the bank from left to right in the shot . Their presence encouraged the LTD to gradually move over to the footpath side of the Fishery , where I was standing , and provided me

with the closest shots that I have managed of her , down to just 10 metres at times , and in the best

photographic conditions , without too much light reflection off the water and not too much wind on

this side . But , by far the most constant view of her was this one , as she dives yet again . More birders are coming to get a view of the duck , as it is mentioned on various websites now , but these will be the last shots I post of her , for fear of boring the reader . Of interest , on one of the websites , I read that a Water Rail was recorded at the site , a species that I haven't managed to get there .
After helping Carol with the monthly shop this morning , I had a look up on the Commons before lunch , and before what turned out to be some very wintry showers this afternoon . Birdwise it was quiet , with a couple of Tit flocks and a GSWoodpecker and a Sparrowhawk being seen to the parish boundary by a couple of the local Corvids . Even the fungi was quiet compared to last visit , with still no sign of any Helvella , neither White nor Black , after an amazing show of the two species last year .  However , a few species were found ,

on a rotting Oak stump , Sulphur Tuft / Hypholoma fasciculare ,

amongst wood chippings , Bolbitius vetellinus ,

on heathland , under a Scots Pine , False Chanterelle / Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca ,

and on woodchips in a front garden , close to where I parked the car Stropharia aurantiaca .