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Its looking properly wintry on the brooks now - lots of wigeon, teal, shoveler, lapwing, greylag geese, Canada geese all over the brooks. A few pintail, single black-tailed godwit and up to 3 ruff have been present over the last few days and the female peregrine has been using her usual perch at the...

Guess who won? I know hornets are pretty efficient predators of all sorts of insects (last week I saw one killing a honey bee), but never thought that they were able to take on such large things as migrant hawkers! I saw this yesterday morning - the hornet was in the process of bringing down the dragonfly...

Although absolutely freezing today, generally the reserve has had a springlike feel at times over the last 2 weeks. Chaffinches, great tits, song thrushes, goldcrests and treecreepers, amongst others, have all been singing, and great spotted woodpeckers are drumming from the big oaks all over the site...

Water rail still appearing regularly about 4m in front of the visitor centre window to the delight of many. Firecrests still being seen around Fattengates courtyard. Crossbills (up to 20) using conifers on heath though seem fairly mobile. All the usual waterfowl present in good numbers and a few black...

Great spotted woodpeckers (at least two) drumming on the heath yesterday in the mild conditions, and around the beech trees on the clump were lots of small birds feeding on the fallen mast. Mostly chaffinches, great tits, coal tits and blue tits, plus a couple of nuthatches. Hundreds of lapwings spread...

...wait half an hour. Was something of a changeable day today, but at least we had the first significant rain since late August. This brought about 40 pintail to the north brooks, the largest flock so far this autumn. 2 peregrines also noted ( 1 adult female and 1 juvenile). 2 ruff were amongst the lapwing...

2 juvenile marsh harriers spent some of the morning hunting over the north brooks today, putting the wind up ca.200 wigeon and ca.150 teal and occasionally annoying each other. 4 ruff and single golden plover amongst ca.200 lapwings. First fieldfares and redwings of the autumn arriving - small parties...

A barn owl has been roosting in the box in the visitor centre roof for the last couple of weeks. The tea room roof is clearly a favoured perch. On the north brooks yesterday a little stint, 4 or 5 ruff, at least 1 green sandpiper. A peregrine caught a teal at about 07.45. A few small parties of swallows...

Still a selection of passage waders on the north brooks - greenshank, green sandpiper, common sandpiper and little ringed plover present this morning. Several lesser whitethroat, whitethroat, willow warblers and chiffchaffs in the scrub around the trail. Yesterday an adult male and juvenile female...