No Crest For The Wicked

I've spent a few hours around the Aldcliffe patch both this morning and on Sunday. To be honest, there's very little in the way of variation, thanks mainly to the weather; wet, windy stuff from the west isn't going to stir things up too much. The hope however, is that an interesting gull or something might drop by...
A good spell was spent trying to relocate the firecrest in Freeman's Wood on both days, but the wee dazzler was nowhere to be seen. I'm sure it's still in there somewhere. Nice to see so many bullfinches there though.
Freeman's Pools continue to host up to 24 tufted duck, 28 wigeon & 9 goldeneye, among other things. The goldeneye have been getting rather frisky, with lots of courtship display on show.
A further 6 goldeneye were at the still massively flooded Wildfowlers' Pools, along with 19 gadwall and 32 coot. 
The Siberian chiffchaff was again in its usual spot; a grey wagtail was there too.
A few hundred pink-footed geese were on the marsh, though they were being bounced about a bit today by shooting activity on the other side of the river.

A covey of 5 partridge was in the fields just south of Aldcliffe Hall Lane (pictured). 

Late afternoon, I headed to the FAUNA reserve to see if the barn owl was going to take advantage of the calm, dry conditions. I arrived to find it sat in the small ash tree close the the Millennium Orchard. It soon started cruising around the reserve and gave great views, frequently perching between bouts of hunting. Fab.

Jon