With the prospect of heading to the sales tomorrow, today was the 'last chance saloon' for my yearlist.

The day started well with an adult Ross's goose (of unknown origin!) with the pinkies and a close adult black brant on my goose walk at Snettisham this morning.

Getting into work I was confronted with the news that there had been a flock of white-fronted geese over the reserve, another one missed! I spent a couple of hours on the computer and then headed out after lunch to spend some time showing people a bittern that had been showing well on the edge of the frozen grazing marsh. Not the best shots but you get the idea!

As I walked down the path, I picked up a group of geese flying west. They didn't sound like 'pinks' but I couldn't focus my scope on them and by the time I got Dave onto them they were too far away - probable white-fronts missed! As we were showing people the bittern, a group of geese flew towards us. The sun was out by now and you could clearly see the white foreheads and black belly bars, 28 white-fronts (209)!! Amazingly we had another 12 about 30mins later.

What was even more satisfying was the fact we managed to show at least 20 people their first ever bittern just standing around on the ice - a fitting way to end the year.

I wasn't sure what would happen with yearlist and writing a blog but I have really enjoyed it. There have been many highlights including the day of Iberian chiffchaff, displaying arctic terns and ending with bee-eater, alpine swift, finally catching up with buff-breasted sandpiper, 5 black-winged stilts, 2 summer plumaged black-necked grebes in May, the opening of the new Parrinder Hide, Pallas's warbler, 200 waxwings in a week and a male Monties on my birthday to name a few. I have ended the year beating my target and it would have been nice to have caught up with at least 4 species over the last week but you can't have everything!.

So am I going to 210 in 2011? In a word....no. We are going to be away for 2 weeks in the spring and to get anywhere near this target you need to be here in May so I am setting some different goals.

1. Find a 1st for Titchwell

2. Take my British list to 400 (391 now)but not to leave Norfolk

3. Do more ringing

4. Do more moth trapping.

5. Keep the blog going and post more photos

Hope it hasn't been too dull and you have found something of interest to read.

Had an early start with a goose count at Snettisham. Decent numbers present although I think they are a little lower than a few weeks ago. Thankfully the birds left in small groups making it easier to count 13,000 (or just under) that were there. An extra surprise was a flock of 26 waxwings feeding in the hawthorns alongside the track on the drive back.

With the news of at least 4 yearticks (hooded crow, bean goose, BT diver, purple sand) on the reserve in the last couple of days I decided to head there for a few hours. The hooded crow is also a reserve tick so I decided to spend some time on the beach and saltmarsh (where it had been) looking for it. On the walk down, the Northern harrier was hunting over Thornham Point but everywhere was still frozen and quiet. A nice group of linnet were feeding along the tideline but the surprise was bumping into the shorelarks from yesterday on the edge of the saltmarsh. They were very confiding but wouldn't stop moving making digiscoping difficult but with the wonders of Photoshop, I have some reasonable images.

The sea and beach were very quiet so I decided to get in some digiscoping practise on some of the waders. As with the shorelarks, I am still trying to work out the best settings but at least I can edit things when I get home. It will be good to see how things come out when the light is better. Having said all that, I don't think that this grey plover is that bad.

6 long-tailed tits and a sparrowhawk in the garden this afternoon and another black-headed gull caught yesterday.

Christmas morning stared off well with a 2nd for the garden. Lying in bed I could hear the blackbirds going mad in the garden at what I assumed to be one of the bloody cats from next door. As I stood at the window trying to see it, a little owl flew off our roof and across the garden with the blackbirds in hot pursuit - nice!! A brambling was in the trees again and there were 3 lesser redpolls around this afternoon. Someone told me that there are still some waxwings in the village so I have put out some apples and put a tape on this afternoon. One would make a nice Boxing Day present!

We decided to go for a walk around the Burnham Norton area as the weather cleared into a cracking sunny day. Things were pretty similar to a few weeks ago but the marshes were frozen and very few wildfowl or waders were about. Things started well with a cracking mealy redpoll feeding on some roadside weeds, a common buzzard roosting in a plantation and 8 barnacle geese in a field near the carpark. Bird of the day however, was a decent sighting of the Northern harrier over the saltmarsh. With my new camera I was able to get some reasonable record shots.

A couple of Lapland buntings, barn owl, spotted redshank and 5 marsh harriers added extra interest.

Managed to try out digiscoping with my new camera with some success. It is going to take a while to get used to it and find out what the best settings are but I am pleased with the first attempts below.

A very clever man has managed to fix the computer. A virus had corrupted Windows and our hard-drive. Thankfully he managed to recover everything!

Started the Christmas break with a ringing session in the garden. Didn't get a great deal but did manage to get another black-headed and common gull. A woodcock flew through late morning but a pair of bramblings in the trees couldn't be tempted down. With milder conditions I should be able to get a bit more ringing in over the coming days.

Computer crashed last night and we ended up with the 'blue screen of death' so there probably won't be much news in the near future.

Hopefully the computer isn't knackered!!

A bitterly mild day today with sunshine and the temperatures actually getting above freezing!





While out for a walk at the weekend, we found a game cover that was planted full of sunflowers and had loads of finches feeding in it and using the hedge for cover. There were at least 100 birds but I didn't have a scope to check through them so I decided to head back for another look.


I got there just in time to see a sparrowhawk go through the cover and scatter the birds far and wide - always the way! There were still a few finche flocks dotted about and I ended up with a respectable 130 (60, 40, 30) linnets by the afternoon. With everthing gone, I decided to lengthen the walk and head back via Barmer.


This was a good move. On the first part of the changed route, 3 geese caught my attention. Not sure why I looked at the as there were loads of pinkies on the move. Thankfully I did as they were a family group of white-fronted geese! In the wood just past the chicken farm, the birds were going crazy at what I assumed was probably an owl and sure enough, sat in a tree on the edge of a garden was this fella.





He wasn't having the best of times being mobbed by 5 jay, 2 blackbird and a load tits. After 5 mins he had enough and headed back into the wood. As I was trying to photograph him, I heard the familiar call of 'wild' swans and 3 adult Bewick's went over and dropped into the fields behind the wood.



Seeing as the light wasn't too bad and this fieldfare was fairly close, I tried a spot of digiscoping with reasonable success. I have a new camera on the way so hopefully I can get an improvement in results.


The rest of the walk home produced 3 woodcock, 2 bullfinch, treecreeper, buzzard and 2 marsh tits.

Another very cold day, min of -9.7 and a max of only -1.2. The reserve was still completly frozen and shrouded in freezing fog. The only bird highlight was a flock of 50 barnacle geese over which I managed to miss.

The heavy frost did make the reserve look nice though!