With our first snow on the ground this morning I decided not to join all the idiots on the road and go out for a walk locally. There is a good circular walk that follows the roads between here and the Creakes where there is lots of good looking habitat. Many of the fields have game covers and there are lots of small pockets of woodland. It looks good for thrushes, finches and raptors.

It was quiet to start with and at the first farm where there are sometimes tree sparrows, they were working and nothing was there. It felt quiet so I was surprised (but not unexpected) when 13 waxwings flew overhead. I managed to see the perched in a hedge but they soon flew north. More unexpected was 2 lapland buntings overhead with a small flock of skylarks. On the 'inward' leg of the walk I found a large stubble field with over 200 skylarks but unfortunatly you could only see them in flight so anything could be hiding amongst them. 8 tree sparrows not far from home would have made a nice addition to the garden list.

With the roads clearing and the prospect of poor weather over the next few days, I decided to head to Thornham to look for the Northern harrier. As I arrived the bird was distantly hunting around the Thornham Point bushes with a couple of marsh harriers and a buzzard. The viewing was cut short by the arrival of a snow storm so I headed home.

Parrinder hide in the snow and a blizzard