After yesterday's Buzzard sightings, I would have liked to keep an eye out for more today, since the weather was practically identical. However, today I actually had to go into work, so I wasn't counting on much luck with the garden list. How wrong I was.

The first notable sighting was a Great Tit perched at the top of a tree at the edge of the woods; they rarely venture out to the gardens at this distance. At around 10:35 I caught sight of a Cormorant (garden tick) flying north over the woods out of the front window. When it passes behind the side of the house I rushed to the back window in an attempt to see it reappear, but it was too low (or too far) to see. In opening the window to get a better view, I heard a Skylark singing over the Pit Top (garden tick) and wondered if it would be high enough to see from the house. After a little searching I managed to locate it, seeing a single Great Black-backed Gull (heading north) in the process.

Rescanning the sky I picked up on a large (100+) flock of birds in the distance to the north west. This was shortly joined by another flock of equally-large size. They appeared to be roughly circling, but the movement reminded me more like a large flock of Starling going to roost. They were too big for Starling though and often, when changing direction, a shimmer like flash would appear as they caught the sunlight. I got the overall impression of a wader species, such as Lapwing or maybe even Golden Plover, but they may have been just Black-headed Gull. Nevertheless, it was interesting to watch them for a few minutes, until they disappeared behind the horizon.

At 11:15 a male Kestrel flew almost directly over and to the north. It hovered over the Pit Top for some time before disappearing over the woods. A short while before I had to leave 3 Dunnock were seen together on the ridge tiles of a nearby house, probably a female getting twice as much attention as she needs!