1st Jan 2021
As usual I did some intense birding around the patch to see what total I might get. A few stops before the Sportsman added waders and some 'garden' birds then headed up towards C. Coote. Being only 1 deg C not many small birds were evident, lucky to find blue and great tit, no dunnock and only got pied wagtail, which is very abundant there towards the end of the morning. High tide was 1.00 ish so pushed on to C.Coote noting lots of wigeon, teal, 2 pintail, 3 shoveler and the male eider put in an appearance. Met Chiddy and together we had brilliant views of the male hen harrier and a merlin. Only distant views of the whitefronts plus a marsh harrier, a single golden plover, little egret and mute swan. The final total for me being 45, with silly misses eg great crests, dunnock, goldfinch, wood pigeon, meadow pipit!!
2nd Jan.
First new bird at breakfirst was a grey wagtail in my postage stamp size garden, no ponds in the area.
Another trip to SS to add more species, still cold, 4 deg C, and dull cloud. Lots of waders on the wet field opposite the Sportsman, redshank, turnstones and the odd ringed plover plus c.200 lapwings and good numbers of curlew. Added meadow pipit with seven skylarks and a reed bunting on the way......several stonechats on route and a close bar-tailed godwit as I walked back along the beach hoping to see the snow bunting which I saw near the white post. So, so, easy to miss as its so tame and sits quietly as people walk by rarely flies...got several shots.
I returned mid afternoon to the sub-station entrance seeing a pair of gadwall, a woody plus a count of 73 coots feeding on the grass.
3rd Jan.
I had a walk along Sandbanks Lane finding hundreds of chaffinches with a few brambling amongst them. Other notables were great spot and mistle thrush. Only two redwings, no fieldfares....used to be orchards here but now berry fruits mainly so not a home to these thrushes anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment