Freakin Fog!

An early morning visit to the doctor has given me the all clear with the foot so its now full speed ahead with the patch.

With calm, cold conditions early on I decided that it there should be a few more finches around the garden so I opened up my nets. It wasn't long before the fog started to form but I kept them open. I was surprised that there wasn't very many birds about but along with the 3 blackbirds, I caught a fine 1st yr male brambling, the first ringed in the garden. Loads of pinkies were flying around the area in the fog and another record of greylag goose (several birds calling) was added!

Happy with that, it was out onto the patch. By now the fog was getting pretty thick and not wanting to stress my foot too much, I decided to give the damp woodland a go for woodcock.

























The visibility was pretty crappy to be honest and it was very quiet for small birds with the damp cold conditions. A calling marsh tit and male siskin in the trees by the marsh were the highlights until I flushed a woodcock (51) from the roadside, quickly followed by another. The only other thing of note from my walk was that the heath does seem to be good for goldcrests at the moment. I am sure that they are breeders from the plantations in the area but 10 birds was pretty good.

One day I hope to see the area in sunlight....

Finally managed to get out

After a rocky start to the year, I have finally managed to get a couple of visits onto the patch this weekend.

To help with my recording I have played around with the boundaries and divided the patch up into 4 sections making the most of the different habitats. The great thing about including the garden is that if the weather is rubbish, I can sit at the window and watch what is going on. That certainly paid off this morning as while I was ringing I added a flyover greylag goose, pair of mallard, 200 pink footed geese and a merlin. 3 bullfinches (1st yr male, adult and 1st yr females) were an unexpected bonus.

Sadly thick fog put pay to my moochings today but not after I had managed to take my total to 50 species which I think is a pretty good start.  I think that it is probably most of the things that are about at the moment but I am hoping there will be a few surprises....
Most of my time was spent kicking around the common  in the search of woodcocks. The common is fringed with damp scrubby birch woodland with lots of bracken, ideal for roosting birds but sadly today I couldn't find any. I did managed to find a roosting barn owl, a nice flock of redwing and a mixed flock of siskin and redpolls feeding by the marsh. Is was too foggy to give them a good check, something for another day. The common is a great area for marsh tit and I had another 4 birds today.

A combination of the thick fog and my bloody foot put pay to a complete walk but not before I added another merlin to the daylist

Bloody foot!

I have know idea what I have done to my right foot (not a NYE injury) but my first opportunity to start my patchwork challenge was scuppered by barely able to walk more than a few metres.

I did however open my nets in the garden for a couple of hours before the rain arrived and had an excellent morning. 15 new, 10 re-traps and a control was a decent return. Best birds were 2 goldfinch, 4 coal tit (7 in garden), 3 blackbirds inc a control. Two female bramblings had been about in the morning but sadly waited until the nets were closed before dropping into the feeders.

Thankfully the patch is centred around the garden so sat at the patio doors gave a good opportunity to add species without having to walk far. Obviously, most of the 27 species added were garden birds but several nice things were added. Flyover golden plover, fieldfare, yellowhammer and fieldfare were nice while 2 jay and a magpie in the garden were good.

Hopefully the foot will improve by the weekend, fingers crossed!!

Barn owl on the way home, a regular sighting at the moment.

And we're off

It was quite nice to wake up this morning not having to worry too much as my yearlisting doesn't start until tomorrow with the first visit to the patch. Probably a good job really as the New Year cocktails had left their mark...!

First bird of the year was a marsh tit on the feeders outside the window but even better was a red deer hind that was feeding on buddleia only 3ft from the window.

Its was a cracking day so we headed to the Minsmere beach with the boys. The sea was pretty quiet with only a couple of close red throated divers.

The big boys were then allowed to go off and do some birding on their own. The South Levels were very flooded and as a result had loads of wildfowl on them. Most were teal, wigeon and pintail but there was 5 Tundra bean geese, 2 brent geese and an adult yellow-legged gull to add interest. 3 redhead smew were on  the Scrape on the way back.

Final species on the morning was this cave spider in a shed by the visitor centre!!

Geese were the order of the day with a trip out to North Warren. Although it was an impressive sight it is a shame that all the barnacle geese are all feral and can't be counted which can also be said for the 4 red breasted geese that were present. 3 of the birds were adults and have been in the area for a few years but the third, a 1st winter, has only turned up recently and is being mooted as wild, don't think it will be going on the list yet....
The rest of the 'wild' geese were showing really well from the path with 100+ white fronts, single 1st winter pink foot and an adult Tundra bean.

Final birds of the day were 7 (4 adult) Bewick's swans just on the edge of the reserve. A pretty good start to the year but bring on the patch!

Ready, steady, recce

With only a few days of the year to go, I decided to spend the afternoon having a good look around the patch in search of hard to get species.

The farmland section was pretty good with a nice flock of 23 yellowhammers and further on, 30 skylarks. Will be scoping those next time for any Lapland buntings (well you've got to dream..) A male grey partridge with 2 females, kestrel and buzzard should get the list off to a good start.
Down on the common its was a walk through the fringing birch and oak woodland in search of woodcock. Despite the recent rainfall much of the woodland was pretty dry but right at the end, in some wetter areas, 2 birds were flushed. Don't go too far...
Green (2) and great spotted woodpeckers, treecreeper, marsh tit and mistle thrush along with several tits flocks should give me plenty to go at.



 

Mixed birch, beech and oak woodland fringing the common. Good for woodland birds especially tits, treecreeper and peckers

 
 
 



 

Nice wet area found today although didn't have willies to have a trash through. Could be where I add moorhen, a duck sp and even a water rail to the patch list...?

 

Away for January 1st but the patch is going to get a good pounding on the 2nd!!! 
 

'Interesting birds...'

Shock horror, I actually managed to get out of the office yesterday afternoon although I still didn't make it to the sea. Mind you, I cant complain too much as it was a couple of interesting sightings that slowed  me down.

My main reason for getting out was to test a 20-60x zoom eyepiece for my Swaro scope (another story). The first birds to test on were some brent geese on thee grazing meadow but as I was setting up my scope I noticed a large raptor circling in the distance, 1st target for the zoom... As  soon as it circled and showed its upperside I could see that the uppertail was white!! I radioed to Richard and Tony to come out of the shop but the bird remained frustratingly distant and always in poor light. The bird spent most of its time quartering over the saltmarsh, hovering regularly and dropping several times. The underwings showed the isolated dark carpel patches and dark belly of a rough legged buzzard but I don't think I had enough to claim for sure. The main thing that worried me was the large broad black tail band that came at least half way up the tail making the white area rather small (not a good rough leg feature I thought) but looking in Forsman, it fits pretty well... The bird flew off over Thornham and unfortunately I couldn't chase it for better views.

The 2nd bird was a little more straightforward. I was looking over the fresh marsh with one of the volunteers when I spotted a drake teal asleep on one of the islands showing both the horizontal and vertical white stripes of a hybrid green-winged/common teal. The bird was pretty distant but the stripes were obvious. I hoped it might still be around this morning for our WeBS count but lots of the teal had left the reserve. Another one to keep an eye out for!

25 twite on the east along the beach, shag and bittern were the WeBS highlights this morning and a look around the patch this afternoon produced several calling marsh tits and a green woodpecker

Just testing

I have set up an automated update to my Twitter feed so just testing if it has worked....

Ignore me, if you can....!