Feelings can be deceptive

On Saturday morning I left the house knowing I would find a great bird for the Cuddesdon area. I could just feel it in my water and being mid-october nearly anything is possible. The Farmhouse Pond held a Little Grebe whilst the first Siskin of the autumn flew over calling. North Field had a scattering of larger gulls, the most interesting of which were 3 intermedius Lesser-Black Backs from southern Scandinavia, identifiable by their very dark mantle colour. For the Gull geeks here is one alongside the more common subspecies graellsii, with their lighter grey mantle colour:

Top Field is still stuffed with Pipits and Larks, about 100 Meadow Pipits, but Skylarks were down to a mere 50. However the field next to Old Barn Field won the prize for the most ornithological interest hands down:

120 Lapwing
100 Starling
30 Chaffinches
20 Black-headed Gulls
10 Yellowhammers
8 Pheasants
2 Buzzards
1 Reed Bunting

! But after that.. nothing really. I flushed a Hare at close range, a few Red-legged Partridges were about, but despite working all the various habitats, all the way east to the River and back there was nothing else of note. Where did the Big One get to? Perhaps today was not the day after all.