An ebert of Siskins....20/12/2011

I intended my visit to the lake again to feed the Ducks etc to be a quick one, I wished once there that I could have stayed a little...no, a lot longer! On arrival 9 Fieldfare passed overhead then as I started to walk towards the lake I was amazed to see in the distance a flock of 90-100+ Siskins! Something must have startled them as they several times wheeled and turned, they looked like a murmuration of Starlings! I watched them for a couple of minutes until they disappeared from view beyond the trees! How I wished that I had more time to spend here and seek out the Siskins and whatever else was around and about, maybe tomorrow or Thursday.
The usual birds were on the lake with the addition of 3 Tufted Ducks (2m,1f). The melee began when the Black-headed Gulls lifted from the water and a nearby paddock! The Canada Geese again got short shrift from the Mute Swan family, I really do feel sorry for them.lol! A pair of Mallards where doing a courtship display, nodding their heads (or bobbing their bills) as they faced each other, nice to see. A Yellowhammer was a nice sighting perched on a hedgerow in the sunshine.