Tuesday 27th December

As it's a mild winter with no evidence of a waxwing irruption or any twites locally, I've been keeping indoors, but a nice surprise leaving the gym last Wednesday was a flock of around 100 siskins descending onto a small lime tree near the entrance.  They seemed to be finding plenty to eat.  I have not seen such a large flock before.

News of some exotic sightings - notably willow tit, bittern and Bewick's swan tempted me to a walk at Castle Loch today, unfortunately truncated due to steady drizzle.

Did not see any of the above but, having stuggled to identify a mixed convoy of ducks, did see nuthatch and pleasingly 3x treecreeper (first in a long time) apart from tits of all three main varieties. All swans were mutes.

Willow tit was reported near the castle and the area does look promising with many dying trees and dead wood.