Great Northern Diver Staines

I added Great Northern Diver to the year list with a stop at Staines Reservoir. The bird was tucked up in the eastern corner of south Basin when I arrived but took no more 5 minutes to locate as I scanned the other birds getting past Gadwall, Goldeneye, Tufted, Coot, Cormorant and Great Crested Grebe before landing on the diver to give me tick 163 for 2013.

A couple more pictures as I get a little practice in with the new kit.

Cow at Lea Valley

Tufted Duck

Canada Goose

Great Crested Grebe

Little Grebe

Mealy Redpoll at RSPB Sandy

I popped up to the RSPB head quarters in Sandy Bedfordshire today after hearing news of some Mealy Redpolls visiting the feeders there this week.

Siskin

A grey, wet day had been forecast so this was a perfect plan. A short drive up the A1, stand in the shelter just off the car park and watch the birds visit the feeders until I find the Common Redpoll.

Lesser Redpoll

Sounded simple until I arrived to find over a hundred Siskin on and around the feeders to cloud the issue. Lesser Redpolls were feeding in smaller numbers. Coal Tits joined the Blue and Great Tits, Bramblings visited with the other finches and Greater Spotted Woodpecker & Nuthatch also came in to feed. It was proving more difficult than I'd imagined to find the Mealy birds with only a couple being possibles showing good variation from the Lessers until a handsome male Mealy dropped in and the debate was over.
This was without doubt my bird and tick 162 for the year.

I took a few more photos with the new kit but the weather was awful so it didn't get much use today despite a very brief stop at Priory Country Park on the way home.

Norfolk Birding

I caught up with the Great Grey Shrike this week up in Hertford to get my 156th tick of the year and decided to head up to North Norfolk this morning chasing a couple of year ticks.
On the drive up the A10 I spotted a group of Swans north of Welney and after pulling over to scan the flock we ID'd them as Whoopers (157) Further up the way I spotted a Barn Owl sat on a roadside post which I never get tired of seeing. We parked up at Wolferton around 8.30am and were quickly looking at two male Golden Pheasant (158) After watching the birds feed for a while we moved on to Holme. We walked the beach looking for Shore Lark but drew a blank despite many Skylarks feeding and singing. We did find five Twite (159) feeding by a pool and a Short Eared Owl came into view although I couldn't get Jimmy on it to his despair. A large Peregrine flashed along the shore while we waited for the Twite to return.

Mute Swan

After this we took a Coffee break at Titchwell before walking to the beach. Along the way we connected with at least 10 Brambling, a Water Rail, a  Bittern, a Spotted Redshank amongst other birds.
At the beach we found Long Tailed Duck, Common Scoter, Eider, a distant unidentified Grebe and a single Black Throated Diver (160).

Greylag Goose

A short drive from Titchwell and we're at Burnham Overy. We parked in the lay by and scanned the distant dunes etc before I locked on to a Rough Legged Buzzard (161) soaring high in the clouds to the west. We watched the bird for around fifteen minutes before it dropped from view. 3 Red Kites and a common Buzzard flew over along with a couple of Marsh Harriers. A small crowd of birders were pleased with my find although not all managed to connect with it despite directions.

Finally we took another coffee break at Salthouse car park and enjoyed the 12 Snow Buntings feeding on the mound to the east end of the car park. I also had a brief view of Male Hen Harrier from here.
Heading home and time for another Barn Owl, a Kestrel and a Merlin...a real raptor day in Norfolk.

Mallard

Pied Wagtail

Snow Buntings

Turnstone

Coot

Black Headed Gull

Apologies for the photos of these common birds ......trying out the new camera and I have to say I'm quite pleased with the first outing with it.

FIFTY SHADES OF BROWN

Having given up yesterday for work chasing a big finish to the January campaign I decided to take a walk along the Roding today as I have made a limp attempt to call it a patch this year. The river was high and brown, the fields were wet and brown and the trees were leafless and brown, all pretty ugly I have to say. I waded along the river bank through sloppy wet footpaths gathering mud on my boots as I walked.

The River Roding

The bird count for this first trip is.......
MAGPIE, JAY, CARRION CROW, BLACK HEADED GULL, COMMON GULL, LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, HERRING GULL, MUTE SWAN, CANADA GOOSE, GREYLAG GOOSE, CORMORANT, MOORHEN, COOT, MALLARD, GADWALL, TUFTED DUCK, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, WOOD PIGEON, RING NECKED PARAKEET, BLACKBIRD, FERAL PIGEON, SONG THRUSH, REDWING, FIELDFARE, STARLING, HOUSE SPARROW, LESSER REDPOLL. GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER, LITTLE EGRET AND BARN OWL. (36)

The Footpath

So I'm on my way with this patch listing lark....Am I inspired? motivated? interested? I'm not sure it's going to do it for me but I'll give it a couple of goes and let's see if I can get going with it. The benefit is it's a walk from home so doesn't involve more time in the car.

I'll keep you posted! (That's assuming anybody else is in the slightest bit interested too)

OH...AND WAXWING IN THE GARDEN TODAY!!!!

JANUARY 2013 VERSUS 2012

A quick review of where I am versus last year.........
January 2012 saw me connect with 153 birds of which included three lifers
January 2013 has given up 155 but no lifers.

Birds seen last year but not connected with this January are
Arctic Redpoll , Arctic Skua , Black Redstart , Black Throated Diver ,  Mealy Redpoll
Crossbill , Dark Eyed Junco , Glossy Ibis , Great Grey Shrike , Great Northern Diver
Kingfisher , Lapland Bunting , Lesser Spotted Woodpecker , Lesser White Fronted Goose
Raven , Rough Legged Buzzard , Spanish Sparrow , Treecreeper , Western Sandpiper
Whooper Swan and  Woodlark

But obviously I've seen two more so there's a few on the seen this year but not seen last January.

Bearded Tit , Bittern, Buff Bellied Pipit, Corn Bunting , Crane, Dipper , Eider
Ferruginous Duck, Fulmar , Great Skua , Hooded Crow , Jack Snipe
Lesser Canada Goose, Marsh Tit , Med Gull, Red Crested Pochard , Red Necked Grebe
Rock Pipit , Shag , Slav Grebe , Stonechat, Woodcock and YL Gull.

So although I've seen more species this year it's not been as HOT as last year with nothing new added to the life list at this point. I'll try to catch a few of the birds missing from last January in February and attempt to keep my nose in front of 2012 in the hope that it takes me out to some great places and clears my head of the stress and strain of chasing numbers at work every day.
Now there's irony......I chase numbers all day and then relax by chasing numbers.

Fudge Duck at Priory Country Park in a ten minute twitch

I stopped at Priory Country Park today to see if I could connect with a Fudge Duck. The weather was very wet and very windy.

Priory Country Park

I parked in the car park of Barkers Lane and walked the twenty feet or so to the edge of the lake.
Within seconds I had the Ferruginous Duck in my scope (154) and then the guy that found the bird approached to ask if I'd found it and to say he can't find the Black Necked Grebe that had been reported so I oblige and locate it for him but it also gives me tick number 155 for the year.
Ten minutes birding gave me two quality ticks for the year.

Dip and Tick

We decided to make the journey up the A10 for Great Grey Shrike seeing that two had been reported today at Therfield. It took a bit of finding once on the heath but we eventually found the part of Icknield Way where the Shrikes had been seen today. A long muddy walk in a gale with  no sign of any Shrikes so a long muddy (uphill) walk back.  Large flock of 30 plus Yellowhammer present along with Buzzard and Red Kites seen on the way up the A10. On the journey home Jim spotted three Grey Partridge (153) in a field off the A10 so we did manage a tick for the journey and the Shrike will wait for another day.