It's that time again!

The monthly bird race with Jim began, as usual, at Venus Pool where a good number of species is always possible. The pool and feeders added most of what we expected, Tree Sparrows and Bullfinch were near the hide and a few more like Fieldfare, Redwing and Linnet were found in the general area. A very good start and the pair of Dippers showed well at Longnor making 38 so far.

Then on to a few places we hadn't included in the previous months, starting at Shirlett. Here we added Crossbill, Redpoll, Siskin, Raven, Goldcrest and Nuthatch. In the Bridgnorth area - Little Owl, RL Partridge, Little Grebe and a couple of others. At Shifnal the 200+ Golden Plover were exactly where I'd left them a few days earlier!

A quick stop at Priorslee found a pair of Gadwall plus LBb Gull, Herring Gull and GC Grebe. On the way to Isombridge we added Shelduck and Jim found a Dunlin! The fields where we usually see plenty of Buntings and Larks were really quiet. Not a wasted journey though - whilst scanning a field for signs of life, I found a Grey Partridge! The first of the year for both of us.

With several hours of daylight left, we headed north to the meres. Common Gull, Goosander and Goldeneye were on Colemere and 9 Curlew at Wood Lane. There were several hundred gulls on The Mere so we stopped to scan for GBb Gull. None found but Jim spotted something even better - the RB Merganser! Good to see it's still around after no reports of it for a few weeks.

Whixall was to be the final destination for the last hour and a half of light where Pintail were quickly found on the floods. There had been no sign of the Crane since the morning but we were hopeful it may go onto the Moss to roost again?

It was still really light when, before we had even reached the Moss, we saw the fantastic sight of a Short Eared Owl hunting ahead of us! Whilst we waited for the Crane and hopefully Hen Harrier, the SEO showed really well for the hour we were there. Easily one of my favourite birds, it was amazing to watch it hunt and get great views of it perched on a post. A perfect end to the day!

We smashed the previous months tallys with 81 species including some hard to see ones. Shame the Crane didn't wish to join the list, wonder where it'll turn up next?