14th January

Another bright, sunny morning with a very cold NW wind but there was little new around the Fishing Boats first thing with a few more Red-throated Divers present while the 1^st winter Caspian Gull was still loafing around.   A stomp through the Trapping Area then produced single Firecrest and Chiffchaff with 4+ Goldcrests and a couple of Long-tailed Tit parties.

                The RSPB Reserve then produced little new but improved counts of 3 Great White Egrets and 9+ Little Egrets before the day’s highlight came late on with 2 Glaucous Gulls together on the beach at the Fishing Boats – a pale juvenile and a very confiding 2^nd winter bird.

Glaucous Gull at dusk

Eye Eye

1st winter Marsh Harrier

Adult female Marsh Harrier

Big, ugly argentatus Herring Gull (the photo makes the mantle look a bit darker than it looked in the field)

Herring Gull - probably ringed somewhere in Gloucester

 

 

 

12th and 13th January

12th January
               Arrived down at Dungeness at lunchtime from where I spent the afternoon around the RSPB Reserve; birds seen in the cold, windy conditions included a Great White Egret, a Slavonian Grebe on Hookers and a redhead Smew on Burrowes with good numbers of Pintail, Teal, Shoveler and Wigeon while there were Marsh Harriers and a single Buzzard cruising about and calling and singing Cetti’s Warblers and Water Rails.

 

13th January

                A gorgeous, sunny morning with a light but cold wind produced big numbers of birds foraging off the Fishing Boats including 350+ Great-crested Grebes, 60+ Guillemots (and a couple of Razorbills) and hundreds of Cormorants along with a single 2^nd winter Mediterranean Gull, a 1^st winter Shag (scarce down here!), a Red-throated Diver and a couple of Gannets and Kittiwakes.   I moved across to The Patch when the sun came up and blinded me where there were at least 2 adult Little Gulls and 4 Mediterranean Gulls in amongst the thousands of other Gulls feeding around the ‘boil’ at low tide.

                The Obs recording area was then pretty quiet with 2 Black Redstarts at the Power Station entrance (including a cracking adult male) along with a pair of Stonechats the highlights while the Trapping Area was very quiet with a couple of Long-tailed Tit flocks and a Green Woodpecker the only things seen (no crests or Chiffchaffs seen or heard).   The long staying and pretty dependable 1^st winter Caspian Gull was then showing very well along the road as I was driving out at lunchtime.

                Spent another few hours on the RSPB Reserve in the afternoon but not much new was seen with a Great White Egret, the Slavonian Grebe and a pair of Smew still present but I did catch up with the roosting Long-eared Owl at the pond-dipping platform by the centre.   Scotney at dusk was then quiet with a Black-necked Grebe on the far side the only thing of note.

 

Caspian Gull

Great White Egret (and Little Egret)

Long-eared Owl

Marsh Harrier - plenty were around, just not coming within camera range - this was the best I could do!

Turnstone at dawn

 

 

 

 

 

8th January

Walked along the River Severn from Cressage Bridge to Ironbridge where the highlight was an excellent flock of 19 Mandarins just downstream from Leighton Flats; other birds included big numbers of birds on the receding floods just upstream from Cressage with 1,300+ Lapwings and a pair of Pintail with 50+ Teal all flushed by a Peregrine, 4 Gadwall on Leighton Flats (scarce on the river), 2 Goosanders and 2 Kingfishers.

Rubbish pictures of some of the Mandarins

Gadwall

Grabbed shots of a Kingfisher as it bombed past

5th - 7th January

Not too much to write about but more personal records fell at the ornithological mecca that is Venus Pool today with counts of 650 Lapwings and 10 Shelduck the highest I've seen here; anyway, here's a few photographs from the last few days.

Drake Gadwall at Venus Pool - not sure what the pale neck collar is all about, its not supposed to have that!

More evidence of the mild weather with this Peacock on the wing in the garden yesterday

Snipe at Venus Pool

Big flocks of Lapwings at Venus Pool today

Green Woodpecker during a pretty unproductive outing to Grafham Water

Bathing and preening Goldcrests

Chaffinch

Yellowhammer

3rd January

Much reduced duck numbers at Venus Pool today, again in the heavy, pouring rain but there was plenty of activity with many things seemingly getting ready for the breeding season with several Mallard pairs seen mating and a pack of Teal displaying like crazy to each other.

Some full on displaying going on!

To anyone that passed by; male or female...who cares!

And some posing as well!

Plenty of Shovelers of various ages and sexes were around as well

New Year!

Went up to Spurn for New Year's Eve and while there was plenty of drink drunk, there wasn't really much to see but I did take some pictures.....

Brent Geese were of course around the fields

Little Egret - no one knows where it was ringed...

Dunlin

Kestrel

Funky 'Green' Pheasant

Long-tailed Tit