Noddle Hill in December

A muddy, gloomy walk around Noddle Hill LNR before the rain set. A Kestrel was  The reserve is slowly started to flood in places. It was very quiet, no fishermen or dog walkers. As I approach the lake, I realise there is a flock of Goosanders, 15 of them (site tick), and two Cormorants, fishing in the quiet of the early morning. A Grey Heron squeaked like a parrot, also flushed by me. I felt like an intruder and tried to stay away of the water's edge. 

Goosanders moving away.

Grey Heron on the shore. Note the old water vole nests.

Goosander.

I walked by the pond-dipping pond. A Male sparrowhawk was sitting on a tree near the feeders. A Female was later hunting over the hawthorns, brushing them with her wings as she hugged the terrain trying not to be seen by the hundreds of Redwing and Blackbirds that were gorging on Hawthorn berries. The thrushes were very nervous, the soft barking alarm calls preceding their flight away. A Roe Deer bounces away.

Redwing and haws.

Blackbird and haws.

A Buzzard sat on a hawthorn on the northern side of the reserve.

Kestrel at Cumbrian Way

Pheasant.

As I was leaving I spot a large flock of Lapwing circling like a Starling murmuration. I don't see any raptors but they have been flushed from the flooded field by the solar panels. I later count 300 of a photo of the flock, but there are more. Slowly, they settle again.

Lapwing.