Following Kevin's report of a Tawny gave me a reason to check the isolated plot of land between canal and Oxley golf club. It was late tuesday afternoon and windy and dull and unsurprisingly no Tawny altho I suspect I was a bit early. What did see were three lesser redpolls and male sparrowhawk.
This area and even more so on the other side of the railway holds a winter Magpie roost. Today the wind was giving them a hard time but they were coming in singly from all directions. by the time I left at 4.20 there were in excess of 35 birds present but with many more birds to come in I would expect the roost to exceed 100. Magpies seem to roost later than other corvids and arrive in ones and twos. Since I became aware of this roost 3 winters ago every time I have stayed until it becomes impossible to see properly their are often as many as 150 birds present but to count properly would need to co-ordinate both sides of railway.
Otherwise the walk back to Newbridge produced a coot and 3 little grebe on the canal none of which I had picked up on the way. Just shows how easy it can be for birds to hide even in winter vegetation, still probably the council will come and clear it all away!
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