He's Football Crazy - Robin Hall and Jimmy Macgregor

 It is an annual and single practice in January, which may be frowned upon in certain quarters, as we don our wellies and stray out into the

STUBBLE FIELD
to prove the presance of the tiny

JACK SNIPE
which will not take to the wing until almost stepped upon, flying to some elevation before tumbling back to earth close by and with no attempt to undertake a count 'one is enough'. Up north both ponds remain more or less frozen but at the

IRRIGATION POND
a small pocket of water held something of a most welcome surprise, a single female type

SHOVLER

with a male from the archive just for comparison!
Something of a scarcity here, if not considered down right rare as over our 10 years recording there have been but c5 so Gob-Smacking then when arriving at the

GRAVEL PIT

to find a further c5, all looking rather female like,

which simply would not allow themselves

to be Canonised in their entirity, but the male

TUFTED DUCK
certainly added to the lustre and one more than the previous total tally!
To add to what had already been the foundations of a good day a pair of

MUTE SWANs

were finding plenty to sustain them.
Along the Sewerage Works hedge it took a full 10 seconds to attract a

'first for year', for the uniniciated note the 'white eye-brow,
FIRECREST
with the aid of the new lure, closely followed by a close relative

GOLDCREST
The following wander around the Solar Panel Compound, after clicking another die-back

PUFFBALL,
was the joy of a small host of

STARLINGs

with these

Sparkling Beauties

just doing it for me, and as if the heart were not light enough already to see the

BOUNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY SPORTS FIELDS
back in use again with players ages ranging from 5 to 55.