23rd and 24th January

A very samey couple of days, still at Dungeness; very calm but heavily overcast, dull and dreary with not too much in the way of new birds.   A walk round the Obs area on the 23rd produced a single Firecrest at the top Long Pit, 3 Cetti’s Warblers and 3 Kestrels before a drive round produced counts of 82 Pochard and 172 Barnacle Geese (local breeding feral-types) at Scotney and a few birds down Dengemarsh Road including another Firecrest, 21 Linnets, 20+ Reed Buntings, a Chiffchaff, a good flock of 115+ Pied Wagtails feeding with the Golden Plover and Lapwings, an adult male Marsh Harrier, a Buzzard and 17 Egyptian Geese.   

A walk from the seawatch hide, round the point to the fishing boats and back across the desert in the morning of the 24th produced 70+ Red-throated Divers offshore but not a lot else while birds on the land included a Firecrest feeding with a Goldcrest, a pair of Stonechats and 2 Stock Doves.   Not much else through the day with an impressive count of 356 Shoveler on ARC and an increased 40 Bewick’s Swans out at Midley Farm where the highlight of the day was actually a Weasel which ran across the road carrying prey, dropped it and gave awesome views as he plucked up the courage to come back out in the open to retrieve his rodent lunch.

Weasel

Sleeping Fox on Littlestone Beach

Goose Barnacles

21st and 22nd January

A couple of days birding at Dungeness; the 21st was a stunning, flat calm, sunny day, the sea was quiet first thing before a walk round the Obs recording area produced 2 Firecrests (one in the Moat and one at the top Long Pit), 12 Long-tailed Tits and 2 singing Cetti’s Warblers.   A walk round the RSPB in the afternoon was also quiet but lovely in the calm, sunny conditions with the only birds of note comprising another 4 Firecrests in with several Long-tailed Tit flocks which also contained a couple of Goldcrests and 3 Chiffchaffs, several pairs of Stonechats, a Green Woodpecker, a few calling Bearded Tits, 3 Marsh Harriers including a smart adult male, 2 Great White Egrets, big flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover across the fields and the usual ducks etc.   

Another very calm day on the 22nd but with complete cloud cover; a look at the fishing boats in the morning produced 211 Great-crested Grebes on the sea, 300+ Auks blogging around, c30 Red-throated Divers, a few Kittiwakes and a 2cy Mediterranean Gull which went east.   A drive out to Walland Marsh then produced 2 Whooper Swans off Caldicott Lane where there was also a huge flock of c400 Fieldfares and a nice group of 28 Bewick’s Swans (including two juveniles) at Midley Farm before birds at The Patch in the afternoon just included an adult Mediterranean Gull and a single Fulmar offshore.

Firecrests

Long-tailed Tits

Goldeneye

20th January

Had a great day’s birding round Minsmere, walking in from Sizewell; the highlights were two Dartford Warblers with a male just north of the power station and another, less-showy bird near the sluice and a brilliant, classic reedbed scene for ten minutes around the Island Mere hide when a Bittern popped out to show well, Bearded Tits were pinging all around the hide (only managed to glimpse one though!), a very noisy pair of Marsh Harriers were getting excited in the sunshine, Water Rails were squealing and Cetti’s Warblers were singing along with a flock of Long-tailed Tits moving through the reeds and yodelling Green Woodpeckers – awesome stuff!   Other bits included a 3cy Yellow-legged Gull feeding at the power station outflow, a group of 7 Whooper Swans on the reserve, c10 Avocets, c6 Black-tailed Godwits, a few Stonechat pairs and stacks of ducks, Marsh Harriers etc. 

Dartford Warbler

Bittern

19th January

A stunning day round the Norfolk Brecks but the wonderful conditions kind of worked against us with the super flat-calm and very cold weather discouraged any Goshawk activity and we failed to find any; it got better late afternoon at Lynford Arboretum were at least three Hawfinches showed well (including a green darvic ringed individual which was too far away to read the code) as well as two Tawny Owls roosting next to each other in a fir tree and three Brambling at one of the feeding stations. 

Sarah's picture of the ringed Hawfinch

18th January

A glorious, sunny (but with a very chilly wind), relaxed day in Norfolk; started off at Sedgeford where we unfortunately failed to see the Eastern Yellow Wagtail but boxing Hares and a run-through Chinese Water Deer kept us entertained.   A look at Thornham at high tide then produced a good selection of waders, wildfowl and gulls, highlighted by two adult Mediterranean Gulls (one of which had a green darvic but it was far too far away to read) before a Woodcock showed brilliantly well by the centre during a brief pit stop at Titchwell for a coffee.    

A look at Burnham Overy was then full of Pink-footed Geese with several hundreds in the fields and lots of small flocks going over in amongst which were 3 Tundra Bean Geese while the many birds down on the saltmarsh included a Barn Owl, a Great White Egret, loads of ducks and geese and big wader flocks of Dunlin, Lapwing and Golden Plover.   We then popped along a bit further where the awesome Rough-legged Buzzard was sat in his bush on the outskirts of Wells (a magnificent bird!) and another Barn Owl showed very well hunting across the fields before heading back to Titchwell for the Harrier roost with a brilliant 40+ Marsh Harriers and a ringtail Hen Harrier dropping in to the reeds.

Rough-legged Buzzard (just)

Woodcock

Barn Owl

Chinese Water Deer

14th - 16th January

A few days based around Leintwardine, Herefordshire dodging the bad weather and heavy showers; a drive down to Clifton Pits near Worcester on the 14th just produced decent views of the long-staying young female Long-tailed Duck with some Pochard, Tufted Ducks and Goldeneye before foul weather moved in.   

A much better day on the 15th was spent cruising round the three main sites near Hereford; good numbers of Mandarin were the highlight round Bodenham Lake along with two Goldeneye, a Green Woodpecker and decent flocks of Siskin, Lesser Redpolls and Goldfinches.   Next was Brockhole Pit where birds included three Pintail, 50+ Snipe and a pair of Sparrowhawks in full display mode with a single adult Whooper Swan with 82 Mutes in fields just to the NW near Credenhill before there was little to mention at Wellington.   A walk through the woods around Croft Castle was fairly quiet but did produce a Woodcock, a Grey Wagtail and a few Mistle Thrushes.   

Another blustery day on the 16th with spells of very heavy rain produced a decent spread of things along the River Teme from Leintwardine including 2 Green Sandpipers, 12 Little Egrets (the most I’ve seen here), a Dipper by the bridge, 8+ Cormorants and a few Red Kites before the only thing of note during a pointless walk around Bury Ditches in howling strong winds and driving rain was a big mixed flock of 250+ Finches and Buntings in stubble fields along the lane leading up to the carpark, mainly comprised Chaffinches and Yellowhammers but did include a Corn Bunting and at least 6 Tree Sparrows.

Grey Wagtail at Croft Castle

Little Egrets at Leintwardine

Mute Swans hanging around outside the pub at Leintwardine