Friday January 4

A sunny morning at last, but I was rather busy and so only had time to nip down to see if the Tawny Owl was showing, which it was.

Tawny Owl

In the short time available I established that the Flashes were frozen, so only a pair of Teal and a Grey Heron were in residence.

I did manage to see and hear a Skylark though, new for the year.

A quick update on Lyn. She is still in the Alex, and has now been diagnosed with flu. So much for the flu jab! So my routine of morning birding or working and afternoon hospital visiting seems set to continue.

Thursday January 3

I suppose its not surprising that with near identical conditions (but colder) today's crop of birds would be very similar to those found two days ago.

The nearest flash pool continues to look good, the sedges at the back hiding at least 20 Teal, while the Shelduck, a pair of Wigeon, and a pair of Gadwall remain settled.

Gadwall

I still enjoyed the morning. The new species for the year were Jay and Kestrel, while several you would expect seem to be completely absent. Where are all the Skylarks?

Kestrel

I also photographed my first mammal of the year, as a Roe Deer posed at the top of the weedy strip.

Roe Deer

Some sunshine would be good.

Tuesday January 1

Happy New Year everyone.

With Lyn currently in hospital, birding has to be timed around visiting hours. So it was that I was approaching Bannam's Wood at 07.28 when a Barn Owl flew across the road, illuminated in the car headlights. That cheered me up.

My plan for this year is to pay more attention to Morton Bagot, and in particular to compile a photo year list of various groups of creatures. The lead grey skies and terrible light this morning did its best to make this difficult, while early afternoon saw light drizzle before the skies lightened a little.

So the camera initially stayed in the bag while I quietly amassed a list of birds. There is no sign that the main pool will be allowed to fill up this year, but the muddy field it has become at least retains some smaller pools and sedge-based marsh. A tramp around it kicked up nine Common Snipe and a Jack Snipe.

The flash field was looking good, and there were plenty of ducks to see. In fact I recorded all the dabbling ducks which are likely in a year. These included three Gadwall, a Shelduck, a pair of Shoveler, and two pairs of Wigeon, as well as the usual Teal, Mallard, and Canada Geese.

Shelduck

Wigeon

By the time I had returned to my car I was on 52 species of bird, and four species of mammal.

Following a short break back home I returned and decided to check out the "Redpoll Field" at the south end. This was very productive, containing flocks of 100 Linnets, and 80 Chaffinches as well as a pair of Stonechats, a Yellowhammer, and a few Reed Buntings, Greenfinch, and Goldfinch. The pasture field just north of it hosted at least 25 Meadow Pipits.

Back at Netherstead I found a second pair of Stonechats.

Male Stonechat

Female Stonechat

A quick return to the flash field added Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Grey Heron, and a flock of 93 Lapwings.

Lapwings

The future is now uncertain. When Lyn comes out she is likely to need full-time care for a while. So the timing of my next post will be dictated by her needs.

Hopefully I'll be blogging again before too long.

Sunday December 23

A grey, damp, occasionally drizzly morning.

Bannam's Wood under the low cloud

Given the weather I hadn't anticipated using my camera at all, but inevitably there was just enough to encourage me to do so.

A few thrushes, and a party of 12 Pied Wagtails were the highlights until I reached the Flash field. Here there was a reasonable selection of birds. The Little Egret flew to the furthest Flash, which also held about 60 Canada Geese and three Gadwalls.

The nearest flash contained about 18 Teal, 20 Mallard, a single female Shoveler, a Shelduck, and 19 Lapwings. Quite a bit better than it has been.

Shelduck

Shoveler and Mallard

Lapwings

The gloomy conditions were challenging for the camera. On the walk back I didn't add a great deal extra, but an apparently tail-less Redwing caught my eye.

Redwing

Sunday December 16

A sunny morning although it gradually clouded over from the south. A very light south-westerly breeze.

The first half of this morning's effort was rather uninspiring, the highlight being a flock of 22 Redpolls. Indeed the day reached a low point as we watched the water trickling out of the main pool through an unblocked pipe.

The Flash field was also largely devoid of birds and it seemed this would be one of our worst visits this year. Then things started to change.

I had noticed some large gulls flying west in the distance. One group in particular, which I had assumed were Lesser Black-backed Gulls, caught Dave's attention when he pointed out that one of them, the small one, was a Herring Gull. This obviously set alarm bells ringing as we realised they had to be Great Black-backed Gulls. This time I got a shot.

Great Black-backed Gulls (with Herring and Lesser)

At the time we thought they were five Geebs and a Herring, but I now think the right hand bird is a Lesser. Later on we saw more large gulls, and the final tally was 20 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 13 Herring Gulls, and four Great Black-backed Gulls.

Herring Gulls

A little further on a Little Egret flew up from a ditch on the other side of a field and landed in a tree. This was the first here since February.

Little Egret

I am guessing this is the single Little Egret which was at Arrow Valley Lake last week.

The final bit of luck was both good and bad. When there are two of you walking around you are obviously hoping and expecting that you will both see anything worthy of note. So when I spotted three drake Goosanders flying south-west just behind Stapenhill Wood, I was anxious to get Dave on them. Unfortunately they were quite low and I could only see through a cleft between two bushes. Every time I tugged Dave to try to get him into a position where he would be able to see them the birds kept disappearing behind the bush. In the end we tried running to the top of the rise, but they had gone.

I did see one in the gloom of pre-dawn on my all day bird watch here in May, but they are generally pretty scarce here. Dave's only record dates back to 2012. So it was a bittersweet moment.

Finally, the livestock on the patch has recently become more biodiverse.

baaaah

Sunday December 9

Showers quickly cleared away to reveal largely sunny skies and a cool westerly breeze.

Just when we had given up on 2018, we go and get a year tick. Unfortunately no photographs were taken because it was a fly over and we wasted valuable seconds agreeing that we were indeed looking at a first-winter Great Black-backed Gull. This was the first here since December 2014, and was therefore pretty noteworthy despite being a gull which any coastal, or even reservoir, birder would barely give a second glance. It was flying with two adult Herring Gulls and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls so the large size was quite apparent.

The gull was the highlight of an enjoyable walk round. The Stonechats were still present, there were still about 120 thrushes (mainly Redwings) stripping the hawthorns, and the Flash field sported three Gadwall, six Teal, and at least 17 Mallard.

Redwing

Alarm calls from a Blackbird led us to disturb a roosting Tawny Owl from the plantation next to Stapenhill Wood.

Roll on the new year.

Sunday December 2

This morning was very mild with a light south-westerly. The early sun shone brightly beneath a bank of heavy cloud which eventually obscured it. Before that the contrast between light and dark encouraged me to take a landscape photograph.

The morning was also characterised by the presence of people and dogs. Three adults and a toddler, all wearing bright red coats, and three dogs, none of which were on a leash. One of them appeared to be lost and was dashing around the pool field no doubt providing an explanation for the lack of birds there.

Anyone lost a dog?

Speaking of mammals, we did see one creature I have never seen before; a Muntjac foal. It's back was spotted, and it was extra tiny. Unfortunately it disappeared under a tangle of brambles before I could get a shot of it.

As for birds, well there weren't many of them. There are still about 50 - 80 thrushes (Redwings and Fieldfares) in the area, the pair of Stonechats was still present, and a visit to the flash field was more productive than last weekend. It contained six Teal, five Snipe, a Green Sandpiper, six Wigeon, and top of the bill three Gadwall.

Gadwall

December eh !