Hello everyone
It’s a lovely morning today, so I went for a walk up the lane. Passing by Cokesputt, I stopped to look in the field on the right. There, in the field, by the hedge, was a green woodpecker. I 
must have disturbed it, because it flew up into the trees, showing the lovely yellow flash of its rump as it went. A splendid bird! On my way back home, about half an hour later, there it was again — probably looking for ants, its main food. Incidentally, I saw three deer in the same field the other week, at 3.30 in the afternoon!
A handsome bird we don’t see so much these days is the bullfinch. However, we have had some in the village recently. Mary tells me she has seen a pair in her garden, and I saw one in our apple trees. David has also been lucky enough to have one too. Bullfinches are not popular with fruit farmers, because they eat the new fruit buds! Mary has also seen a dipper in the village stream, bobbing up and down.
Looking into the field, at the rear of our house, the other day, there was a large
mixed flock of birds, which included fieldfares, starlings and at least two redwings. I was pleased to see the redwings, because I don’t see many of these small winter thrushes round here. Apparently, starlings are also getting rarer.
Alan Jones
