January

For some reason I finally found the motivation to travel the short hop up the M11 to Comberton in Cambridgeshire today and after a short search managed to connect with the wintering Great Grey Shrike. The bird remained distant  but I did manage to find a couple of Grey Partridge for a bonus year tick whilst there and had good views of several Fieldfare feeding in the grass before leaving. Whilst in the area I nipped into Milton CP and searched for the Yellow-browed Warbler but the views were too brief and too distant to confirm so I may return for a longer look. The car park closing at 4.30PM didn't help today.

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Great Grey Shrike (a true record shot)

As I often do to feed my need for data I've looked at where I stand at the end of January against my biggest years without an agenda to actually chase a big year in 2022 at this point.

My biggest year was 2019 when I saw 303 species and in that January I connected with 152 species and in this January that's seen me sitting on 148 species I have missed eighteen from the 2019 January total. My top 2022 targets according to Bubolisting are.... Barn Owl, Shag, Tawny Owl, Tree Sparrow, L. Redpoll, Purple Sandpiper, Eider, Slavonian Grebe, Dipper and Ring-necked Duck. (Still can't believe I haven't seen a Barn Owl this year)

My best January ever was 167 species back in 2020

Year list now 148

Now my attention is drawn towards February, a month which generally delivers twenty odd year ticks and very few life ticks but we live in hope and that Belted Kingfisher just won't go away so who knows it may still tempt me.