Little Cressingham (Notable counts of Finches)

A morning of poor light with a moderate westerly wind greeted me for a walk along the Great Cressingham Road between The Arms and Fairstead.  Occasional showers but with a high of 15 degrees at dawn.
A good variety of species seen with the most notable being good counts of Finch species. No passage noted owing to the wind direction, however, an interesting local movement of Grey Heron.

1 Grey Heron - high east
2 Red Kite
5 Buzzards
1 Kestrel
1 Hobby - chasing Finches
21+ Skylarks (flock)
Meadow Pipit
Mistle Thrush
1 Song Thrush
Goldcrest - 2 sites
200+ Goldfinches
250+ Linnets
Chaffinch
1 Siskin south
1 Reed Bunting

The species seen in the above list were noted along the route taken this morning, however, most interest was where a large area of farmland is annually sown with weeds, wild flowers and maize.
Close to bridge crossing over Watton Brook a flock of about 30 Linnets was seen along with a single Siskin overhead flying south.
Approaching the large weedy/maize area, the first birds which held my attention was a small flock of 21+ Skylarks.  This flock is probably a gathering of local birds which will roam the countryside, possibly joining other local birds.  Hard weather on the continent may force Skylarks to join our local birds for the winter, equally, hard weather here may force our birds to warmer areas.
I positioned myself at the end of the weedy area and watched a fantastic gathering of 200+ Goldfinches.  Often, these colourful birds would fly when startled before settling back onto or within the weed.  Memorable observations of this large flock was seeing them against the dark background of distant trees when their diagnostic yellow wing patches flashed in front of me.
Equally amazing at this locality was a large flock of 250+ Linnets, again, quite flighty at times.
Of course, where you have large numbers of small birds such as these Finches, raptor species will be attracted for the opportunity of taking potential prey.  A Blue Tit gave an alarm call, I looked around me straight away saw a Hobby chasing Finches.  The Hobby was powering towards the Finches at an amazing speed and with stunning agility, surely, it must have caught something, but I could not confirm this.
For what was a dull morning on the patch it turned out to be very rewarding.