A recent visit to the north of England enabled me to get excellent views of tree sparrow in a garden, with a maximum count of 22 at one time, and not one house sparrow! They were particularly attracted to seed feeders containing pure millet. Given that these birds do turn up locally in the RX area it might be worth using this seed to attract them to the garden if you know you have this species in the vicinity.
The traditional New Years Day walk was not treated to good weather and the 45 members got soaked shortly after starting. But we were treated to some good birds, although had to cope with wet and fogging optics. 68 species was the total, but this did not include any finches or owls and several easy species. Highlights were the Shore Lark, a covey of Grey Partridge, 700 Golden Plover wheeling around the sky before landing back on the flooded flat beach, a Gannet sat on a calm sea next to a fishing boat, a line of about 100 Common Scoter, a couple of drake Goldeneye, 2 Scaup, a redhead Smew and a Marsh Harrier.
The birds around the pools were dominated by 1,000+ Lapwing. These were joined by 70 Golden Plover and a good count of 14 Ruff. The White-fronted Geese were still present but as they were feeding behind a raised bank they were impossible to count.
The sea held lots of grebes and scoters and a number of adult Gannet passing slowly to the west. Five Brent Geese flew eastwards close inshore.