Snipe

With the glimmer of first light illuminating the eastern sky I set off for my local park, Ladywell Fields, there was a light frost and still a few patches of dirty snow on the ground. I love being in the park early in the morning as even though I’m in an urban environment there was no one else around, and for the first hour I had the whole park to myself.
My goal today was to check the margins of the River Ravensbourne that runs through the park for Snipe, the recent snow and freezing temperatures affecting large parts of England would have made it impossible for the Snipe to feed, this results in the birds turning up in unusual places looking for food.
The first stretch of the river just produced the obligatory Mallards and a couple of Moorhens but halfway along the second stretch on the bank I saw some movement, it was a Snipe, it’s cryptic plumage rendering it almost invisible. This was the first time I have seen a Snipe in the park, so a good patch tick for me! I later found a second Snipe on another stretch of the river.
Another sign of the recent inclement weather was the amount of Redwings and Fieldfare in the park, at least 150 Redwing and 20 Fieldfare feeding on the open areas of grass, a Green Woodpecker called, the first I’ve heard here for a couple of years and the Kingfisher darted upstream and as the first joggers and dog walkers made their way into the park I headed home for breakfast.