Latest from Carr Vale. Best of a quiet day on 15th was a flock of nine Siskins north, they’ve been very scarce this winter. Also on 15th two Water Rails heard, four Common Gulls, five Willow Tits, Marsh Tit and two Chiffchaffs. On 16th still quiet but 114 Wigeon, female Goosander south and one Chiffchaff. The previous highest count for Snipe was 55 way back on 8th January 2000, so on 17th we (me and Phill) decided to see if we could better it and we did counting 59 at dusk but unfortunately no Jack Snipe. Also on 17th a total of nine Goosanders were seen during the day, nine Buzzards were in the air, six Water Rails, Marsh Tit, Chiffchaff and nine Bullfinches plus a male Tawny Owl after dark. On 18th Wigeon had bounced back to 124 (from 67 yesterday), Teal were ups slightly to 34 and a Peregrine flashed across the flash a couple of times whilst the Marsh Tit was still present. Been pretty quiet for the past week. Two more colour ringed Black-headed Gulls have been seen during the week, hopefully I’ll have their history by the time of the next post but it seems that they may both be from Finland.