28 people braved the suddenly cold conditions for the walk at Riverside to see in the New Year.  It was good to begin getting common birds such as Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin and Blackbird for our lists from the car park.  A female Chaffinch posed on top of one of the Alder trees by the canal and a few of us got a view of a lone Siskin.  A couple of Moorhen could be seen and groups of Long Tailed Tit moved through at intervals.

Cormorants flew by and a Heron was in one of the fields.  A distant Stonechat perched on some vegetation.  An Egyptian Goose perched in an unusual position high in a tree.  We had splendid views of a Buzzard perched up and a Red Kite soared overhead.  Groups of Mallard swam around.  A Kingfisher flashed across the water and a couple of Snipe flew in. Walking further along the canal we saw Grey Wagtail and a Great Spotted Woodpecker called and did a characteristic undulating flight into a clump of trees.

The number of Gulls was impressive as we neared the Recycling Centre, with hundreds of Herring Gulls and Black Headed Gulls circling around.  The lake past Stoke Lock was fairly quiet and partly frozen but there was a Chiffchaff in the hedgerow and a couple of Teal were tucked up in fallen branches along the river here.

We saw a small group of Redwing as we negotiated the boardwalk along with Dunnock and Wren.  Arriving at the lake there were Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Great Crested Grebe and Coot.   We were also able to pick out a lone Common Gull and a couple of Lesser Black Backed Gull loafing around on the water.  Along with the ever-present Magpie and Carrion Crow, by the end of the walk we had seen a total of 38 species.