There were at least 7 water rails on the outflow channel from abingdon sewage works this morning. Probably quite a few more as a very large proportion of the channel you can not see. With so few areas free of ice (the Thames in Abingdon was completer frozen this morning!) it is probably a vital lifeline for these birds. So let's keep flushing those toliets in Abingdon in support of the water rails.
I also had a long walk around the south Abingdon/Marcham area. It is extremely noticeable how virtually birdless most areas away from the towns are with all this snow. There are still good numbers of fiedlfares, but a more or less total absence of typical farm land birds (not a single meadow pipit, skylark, chaffinch, greenfinch or bunting in almost 4 hours of walking!). Only other birds of note were:
2 redpoll
6 siskins
2 snipe - flushed out of a hedge
Tom
photo of Abingdon Water Rail (c) B.B
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