Winter ending?

The long winter floods are starting to recede. Duck have come and gone and returned as the snow or ice have influenced them.
Probably at a peak over the last two weeks with some 600 Teal, 400 Wigeon, 17 Shovelar and that special bird for here 3 Pintail.
I usually leave well alone so treating it as a sanctuary so numbers are difficult to guess at, and I will only walk up to a mid-point to minimise disturbance  Doing this the other day also disloged some 30 Snipe - though there must be a lot more of these beyond my stopping mark.

Up on the Down, a Lapwing has briefly been back - though its temporarily (I hope) disappeared again. Six Corn Buntings have been seen and two heard singing., joinung in with the Larks in the cold February wind.

Meanwhile an unusual sight has been a Barn Owl out in daylight at either end of the day flying over the conservation areas on and below the Down.

15th of Feb was a lovely warm day and showed the strong hint of spring - but of course it's a three month process and much cold must be gone through first!