Bright dusk

A rather nice sunset got me as enthusiastic as this morning, my reward was a Little Owl in the usual Oak tree left of Lea Farm buildings, so my 73rd and DP's 80th species this year.

I'd hoped for a fly over Little Egret, but settled for a nice Starling roost of around 1500+ birds over Lavell's until 16:20.

Here are my sunset pics.

And the zoomed and cropped ones

Bright morning

I was out around 08:30, it was nice bright and cool, so my hopes were high of some excitement and as pleasant as it was, very little showed.

61 Pochard on Sandford, plus the female Red Crested Pochard, I've tweeted and WhatsApp'd it so many times now, my phone's predictive offers it as soon as I type R, C & P.

I checked BSL quite well, but just Wigeon and Gadwall and 2 more Pochard. In the car park field, very little at all, just 2-3 distant Fieldfare. I did pause to watch a Red Kite on the trees above the Barn Owl box and took a series of pictures, nothing special, but nice light and more or less in focus.

At Lavell's another 18 Pochard, so their numbers are well up, a Little Grebe hiding under trees far left side, was new for my 2016 year list, so 72 of 79 now.

The stealthy year tick

It's been a tricky week for getting out when Goosander could drop in any moment, but I managed the last hour of light tonight. I began at Sandford picking up the female Red Crested Pochard asleep on the far side, 20+ Pochard present too and lots of Gadwall.

I decided I was near enough to WSL to give Bittern a try, but there was virtually nothing to hear or see there, barely any Starling, 1 Sparrowhawk was about it.

I marched back to Lavell's and saw the flock of Starling vanishing over there from Sandford, heading straight to Teal hide, I half expected to hear more birds, but as it was much cooler and getting late, nothing much did.

In a few moments at 16:59 I picked up a Woodcock coming toward the hide, it turned right and looped back, repeating the loop, before seeming to drop towards the right of the scrape. I waited to see if it was going to return, but after about another 5 minutes it was nearly totally dark looking North, so left. On my walk back I made a few lame Tawny Owl calls, hearing something towards Sandford copse, I couldn't be sure if it was even a bird, so dismissed it.

My feelings are that if you want the hardest to find winter species, you have to work at it, but at least be smart about it, so looking for Woodcock as I did today, or anytime into late February will do, same applies to Bittern, most likely still at WSL, but perhaps our elusive bird is still lurking around Lavell's somewhere?

I think one can be a little more relaxed about Barn Owl, but all of the aforementioned can often be seen around Bittern hide, then concentrate there. Tawny Owl might well be even harder to see than all the other owls, I am always happy just hearing them myself, but it's one species that most resort to short bursts of tape luring to catch a glimpse of one. As long it is a short burst, I am not one for getting bent out of shape on such things. If it was a Baillon's Crake, or Marsh Warbler in late May, well that would be a different matter.

I will be updating my year list and various other sections very soon.

Just some shots I took

I didn't take the photo of the flowering Blackthorn, but wish I had.

Instead I took some of the flooding near Betty's bench last night and the Alders today at Woodford park. It is the same story everywhere bulbs about to bloom, shrubs and trees in bud and flower.....it scares me of what damage this might do to the ecosystem, how will our pollinators cope and compensate?

Rain, rain, rain

Good grief, back to 2014, with rising water levels and struggling to get anywhere around the park, although the levels were lower this morning than those of last night.

I was going to go across the golf course, but the 5-6 dogs charging everywhere quickly dissuaded me there would be any point. So off to the car park field I went, meeting Brian at BSL on the way, then Trevor in the car park itself.

A good scan over the landfill, 3 Ring-necked Parakeet, 2 Egyptian Geese, lots of Lapwing, 2 Buzzard, but no new ones for me until I picked up something heading in from the North with a powerful wing beat. I watched for a few more seconds thinking wader, or raptor? then as it came over Lodge Wood it veered right to the East and immediately became obvious "Peregrine" I shouted, quickly getting the other chaps onto it. 09:05 in view 09:06 and it was gone, I suspect a male.

Then Trev and I headed for Bittern hide, wading thru just about passable water depths, no sign of Little Grebe, but they were seen yesterday, then I heard Treecreeper and we both then enjoyed good views on nearby trees, along with 2 Nuthatch. Time to go and I went away happy on 70, of the 78 now recorded on the park so far.

Later I came back to check for Golden Plover to the far North, but had to wade up Sandford Lane due to the rivers coming up further. Not long into my watch I picked up about 40 Golden Plover in front of Bowsey Hill fast East, but they were miles away. 71 out of 78.

A good flock of around 1000 Starling were circling and making nice shapes as I waded back to the car, sadly I had to leave before a Little Egret was likely to head North.

7 behind

It doesn't mean much at this very early stage, but not being available last night for dusk specialities, cost me a Barn Owl and a lucky Bittern for Brian and Marek.

Today I laid in until 09:00 and given the weather wasn't too good, I probably shouldn't have as it soon declined into constant rain. My first stop was LFGP for Pintail, my predictions were right and there was no sign. At least I got Rook.

I met Marek near the green bridge and learned of yesterdays reports of Little Egret, I then bumped into Brian and he had Kestrel and Mistle Thrush on the golf course, plus the Siskin flock along the golf course strip. So I headed there, only to bump into my old friend Paul Cropper, heading to Bittern hide, so joined him instead.

Not much showing but when the RSPB group arrived someone announced Nuthatch on the feeders, I quickly scampered over to view it as it returned to the feeder. Then I clocked a single Fieldfare flying right, before Marek sent a WhatsApp message "Coal Tit and Chiffchaff by the green bridge".

I headed there with Paul, Sue and Jane, quickly picking up the Chiffchaff in the willow, calling softly, but no sign of the Coal Tit. Some new feeders have been put up in one of the gardens near to the mill, so that might bring other opportunities?

It was time to go, but just before I got to the lay-by a Siskin called overhead, adding 5 for the morning, so now I was on 68 of the 75 seen so far.

My return to Bittern hide this evening produced nothing.

Very cold 1st morning

Okay minus 1 isn't that cold, but compared to the rest of the winter so far, when I arrived at 07:20 I was frozen. Multiple loops around Lavell's and car park field, then Sandford, BSL and off to WSL I picked up all the expected, or hoped for stayers. Red Crested Pochard and Ferruginous being most notable.

But I was also pleased with Mistle Thrush at the WSL/BSL hedgerow, the 2 male Goldeneye at BSL's South bay...my first this winter, then 3 Ring-necked Parakeet over Lavell's mid morning, plus 2-3 Great Black-backed Gulls over.

I scored 63, only missing Fieldfare and Siskin reported by others by the time I left at 10:45. Whilst typing a WhatsApp message has come in a pair of Pintail at LFGP is a more annoying miss, hope they stay til tomorrow.

Missing off the list, but on site somewhere are, Little Grebe, Little Egret, Bittern, Kestrel, Treecreeper, Rook & Nuthatch.

Coal Tit, Grey Wagtail and Lesser Redpoll are all tricky and not recorded in December as far as I am aware. I'll do a more comprehensive list soon, but we can expect 11 more for sure, plus another 9 which have a good chance of occurring in January, if we got all of them and added just 3-4 of the many other possibles, we'd break the 2008 record of 88.

Now is the time to look for Goosander, the first few days in January often have fly overs.