Winter waders

A good morning for Golden Plover, with a single, followed by 20, followed by 90, all heading north.

Last January the fields by the River Thame were flooded, resulting in records of Teal, Wigeon and Gadwall. Whilst water levels are higher than they were last month, the river has yet to burst its banks and there have been no wildfowl record records at all in 2012. I was grateful that these 2 Mute Swan plonked themselves down in a field of winter wheat:

Away from the river I added Stock Dove to the yearlist, while the hedgerows held reasonable numbers of Greenfinches and Yellowhammers, with a couple of Bullfinches to boot. Higher still, nearer the village, there is flowering rapeseed - in January! It looks wrong on so many levels:

And here is the body of the last person to approach the local farming community to suggest that they consider biodiversity as well as the bottom line: