February 6th

Occasionally we put out a trail camera in our back garden to see if there are any foxes. About two weeks ago we had a brief view of an owl flying over just after midnight and last night it reappeared and is a Long-eared Owl. This is not unprecedented as we had a male singing regularly during January and in February 2016.

This morning we had an inland walk at Reculver and recorded 32 Chaffinches, 120 Rooks, 50 Jackdaws, 6 Long-tailed Tits, 5 Mallard, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 1 Woodcock, 2 Goldfinches, 2 Common Buzzards, 2 Chiffchaffs, 1 Stonechat, 2 Cetti's Warblers and 1 Pied Wagtail.

At 11.15, I was looking out of the window and could see a group of birds sitting in the top of a tree some way away and on looking at them through binoculars saw they were 18 Magpies.