Meanwhile....back at the ranch......

The weather has been awful this week, so much rain that the River Calder broke its banks, near Whalley. I've only managed to get out for short spells. The female sparrowhawk has been hunting around the garden frequently. It was the male that I filmed killing the collared dove last year.
When Jill and I were walking Treakle yesterday, we flushed a brown bird from the trees in "owl corner". Jill says that this is the bird that she's flushed several times. The first time she reported this to me, we put it down to snipe or even a female pheasant. However now that I've seen it myself (and the fact that it was flushed from a wooded area) I reckon that its a woodcock.
It was only a fleeting glimpse as it flew off, so I havent added it to my UK08 list yet, got to be 100% sure.
I went out today and scanned the ground in front of me with the bins as I walked. Nothing flushed though. Gives me something to target. I'd love a dodgyscope of a hiding woodcock.
The Slav is still on Barrow lodge and is still attracting numbers of twitchers every day.
Also siskin, redpoll, bullfinch and goldcrest around the garden area.