Croxley Common Moor & The Withey Beds Nature Reserve

Steve Carter and I conducted a morning visit to the moor in conditions that were almost wintry with dark cloud overhead and precipitation hanging in the air. On arriving we headed to the centre of the moor where a total of 4 Northern Wheatear (3 male and a single female) showed well and a single Whinchat briefly posed before moving into deep gorse.
A full list of species encountered as follows:-
Great Cormorant (3 on Grand Union Canal), Grey Heron (1), Mallard (2), Common Pheasant, Common Buzzard (1), Common Moorhen (2), Common Tern (3), Lesser Black-backed Gull (4), Feral Rock Dove (1 over), Collared Dove (2), Ring-necked Parakeet, Common Kingfisher (1), Green Woodpecker, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Barn Swallow, Pied Wagtail (1), Wren, Dunnock, European Robin, Whinchat (1), Northern Wheatear (4), Blackbird, Song Thrush, Sedge Warbler (1), Lesser Whitethroat (2), Common Whitethroat (3), Blackcap (1), Chiffchaff (2), Willow Warbler (1), Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Jay (1), Common Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Starling (6 collecting food), House Sparrow, Common Chaffinch, European Greenfinch, European Goldfinch, Reed Bunting.

                                          Common Moorhen.

                                          Northern Wheatear.  

We then moved on to the Withey Beds Nature Reserve where the following species of note were observed:-
Common Buzzard (1), Common Swift, Green Woodpecker, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Garden Warbler (1), Eurasian Bullfinch (pair)
Mammals
Roe Deer (1).

                                          Roe Deer at the Withey Beds N.R