More local

An unexpected second and third bite of the cherry today. Firstly SLRS this morning with Steve and Bramble. The gloom meant no issues with looking into the sun, not that there was much to look for. New for the year were Cormorant, Mistle Thrush, Pheasant, and Stock Dove. Otherwise the usual stuff.

Then this pm with D#2 and D#4 to Hatfield Forest. More standard woodland stuff, then as we were leaving a Common Buzzard sat in a field, and a couple of fields down 24 Fallow Deer. Some were sat down on the edge of the field, something I've not seen before.

Unless we get some cold weather, I guess the thin lists of this weekend are typical of what we can expect locally until spring.

Thorley Wash 12th Jan

Time and sunshine likely to be in short supply this weekend, so I nipped up to Thorley Wash to try and get some photos of the Lesser ‘Pecker that’s been around recently. The river was as high as I’ve seen after the downpours of recent day, with all the overflow channels full too.

Needless to say there was no sign of the Lesser, or anything else of note. I gave it some time, and slowly but surely it became clear that there really was nothing around. The two pairs of Little Grebes on the river were less than the double figures of previous years. With both pairs, one bird was buffish in colour, and the other one was greyer. Adult and 1st winter? also, I got a Nuthatch in Walbury, the first Kestrel of the year, and then 49 Redwing and 1 Fieldfare in paddocks the west side of the railway line.

Early Birds at Hatfield Forest

I got to Hatfield Forest early, with the frost still on the ground. The Forest was full of birds but the quick walk fomr the main car park round the lake and back brought nothing exceptional.

Bullfinches were everywhere, with a party of 10 in brambles by the entrance, Redwings, Greenfinches and Chaffinches well spread throughout the copious leaf-letter underneath trees, a couple of Jays, 3+ Nuthatches, Green Woodpecker, GSW, Long-tailed Tit, and on the lake 56 Gadwall and smaller numbers of Teal, Pochard, Tufted duck, Mallard, Canada Goose and 2 GC-Grebes.

Finally on the way home 28 Golden Plover at Spellbrook were probably from the volatile Allen’s Green Flock.

For/Against Bird Shooting

South of Sawbo in the fields round SLRS and was confronted with both sides of the Shooting argument today.

Firstly, birding hedgerows and rough fields with a wide variety of birds including Stonechat, Snipe, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, and various finches and thrushes. Then, two shooters coming through with their dogs, giving the scrape field a thorough going over, and letting loose at what I assume was a Snipe and then a Rabbit. One shooter had a bird in one pocket, and the other had a pheasant in his bag. The tail was still twitching manically behind his back.

Personally, it strikes me that without the shooting this area would be an avian desert, like much of my tetrads where I spent a long time walking seeing absolutely nothing, and as a meat eater I think its better to eat wild animals than battery-reared animals. But I was still willing the birds to get out alive.

The list. New birds for SLRS area in bold, which as its the first trip of the year is everything: Teal 5, Moorhen 2, Lapwing 20, Snipe 3, BH Gull 32, Common Gull 2 (1ad 1 imm), WoodPigeon 10 + , Collared Dove 2, Meadow Pipit 1, Dunnock 6, Robin 5, Stonechat 1 pair, Blackbird 5, Fieldfare 1, Song Thrush 1, Redwing c10, Goldcrest 1, Great Tit 8, Blue Tit 8, Jay 1, Magpie 16 incl 13 in 1 tree, Carrion Crow c10, Starling 12, Chaffinch 10, House Sparrow 2, Greenfinch 2, Goldfinch 19, Bullfinch 2, Reed Bunting 3, Yellowhammer 3.

2008 and Counting

I haven’t kept a list for years. I’d started watching for the list, and not for the joy of watching birds, so I stopped and started looking at the birds again.

I thought this year I might keep one. Or a couple. Year list, local Sawbridgeworth area, Weymouth area, and one specifically for birds just south of Sawbridgeworth in the SLRS area., so that’s four.

And I found the discipline of counting birds on the BTO survey useful; just that extra check to make sure everything’s been recorded often turns up something unexpected. So I’ll be doing more totals this year.


Start off with a Harlow Town Park in the gloom. Goldfinch 25, Siskin c10 roosting, GSW 1, Long-Tailed Tit 2, Chaffinch 1, Magpie 4, Blackbird “a few”, and many gulls over SW towards the Lee Valley Reservoirs included 1 Common Gull, 2 LBB, 1 Herring Gull.

Last Gasp 2007

We popped down to Weymouth for a couple of days. Nipping out for a couple of hours is normally difficult in winter, but this time I could nip out for a couple of hours in the morning because D#1 appears to be in a state of quasi-hibernation, and doesn’t normally make an appearance until the afternoon.

29th was Lodmoor. I started off scanning Weymouth Bay, and got 3 Great-Northern Divers, 2 Razorbills, a GC-Grebe, c20 Turnstones, and a frustrating distant diver.

On Lodmoor, a large female pheasant powered past, and it was only as it plunged into the reeds that I twigged it was a Bittern – my first for Lodmoor. Then 3 Stonechats, and from Beachdown Way a flock of Pochard contained 2m Wigeon and a female Scaup – another first for Lodmoor. Otherwise a female Bullfinch, and a Shoveller.

Then 30th it was round Portland Harbour. With no wind it was like a millpond, perfect conditions. I watched from Portland Castle, then The National Sailing Academy, and then over the shingle bank into Chesil Cove.

There were at least 4 Great-Northern Divers, possibly 6; a Red-Necked Grebe, 3 Long-Tailed Ducks causing a stir amongst the regulars, 3 Med Gulls (ad, 1st winter, 2nd winter), a couple of Razorbills, a GC-Grebe, and a few Dunlin, Turnstone and Oyks.

Over the bank, there was c30 Common Scoter on the big sea. I couldn’t see the Velvet Scoter with them, despite much searching, but did see a Red-Throated Diver.

Finally another two distant Divers in the harbour. They were good candidates for Black-Throated; serpentine appearance, horizontal beaks, occasional glimpse of white thigh patch, but just too distant to be absolutely positive.

Last minute local birding

A couple of visits to Harlow Town Park to make sure the children don’t spend all day in front of the computer. Despite the location in the centre of a new town, and the large areas of close cropped grass there’s a few spaces for birds; notable totals were:

Green Woodpecker, GSW, Siskin c50, Grey Wagtail, Song Thrush 1, Blackbird 12, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Long-Tailed Tit 3, Cormorant 2, many Common Gulls going over with similar BH Gulls and 1 LBB Gull.

And a male Bullfinch in the garden this morning!

Finally a happy Xmas to everyone, and if I don’t post anything between now and next year (which is quite likely), best wishes for successful birding in 2008.

Sawbridgeworth Marsh Roost 22 Dec

I don’t do freezing cold as a rule. If I spend a day out in sub-zero temperatures I always seem to end up getting flu for two-weeks afterwards. But today I reckoned I could get away with a visit to Sawbridgeworth Marsh Roost.

Mike has had some excellent records recently; LSW, Peregrine, Woodcock, Jack Snipe, but my incessant yakking put a stop to that today. I find roosts difficult as birds call once then plunge out of the gloom into a reedbed, and got some invaluable lessons from Mike in bird calls and distant flight identification.

Highlights below (a subset of Mike’s List of evening totals for those notable species I saw): 2 Water Rail, 7 Stock Dove, 2 Little Owl (both calling birds), 1 GSW, 11 Meadow Pipit, 10 Redwing, 256 Fieldfare, Chiffchaff (heard in reedbed), 207 Jackdaw (SSW), 159 Rook (2, 157, SSW) , 24 Reed Bunting, 2 Yellowhammer (N).

I notice that nearby Rainham Marsh has had an influx of exotic geese in the last couple of days. Has St James’s Park lake frozen over?

What’s going on with my blog?

According to the various stats attached to this blog, the readership is increasing and becoming more international.

Just as I was congratulating myself on this blog finding its rightful place in the pantheon of bird blogs, my photographic talent getting well deserved attention, and my writing abilities finally gaining their proper recognition etc etc I noticed that most of the recent hits come from the same google request back to this entry from the summer. It’s not a particularly noteable entry.

I suspect some automated process is up to no good. Can either of my regular readers shed any light on this?

SLRS 16 Dec

South of Sawbo. Cold, bright, frosty but difficult with the low sun. The scrape was frozen round the edges but melting in the mddle.

Probably the worst list this year. The heaving hedgerows and flocks of finches in the field have all gone, leaving just a basic list.

Kevin was out with his new scope, so we wandered slowly round the fields, putting it to the test on distant trees with some success. We found two mussel shells in the middle of the field. A peruse of my guide book at home indicated Swan Mussel as the most likely candidate

Slowly some decent sightings were assembled, and on the way back we came across a Bullfinch. A common enough bird round here, but usually all you get is a call and a white rump disappearing into the distance; today we had a pristine plump vision of jet black, battleship grey, shocking pink and brilliant-white. For a moment I was a transported back to a snowy garden in Leeds, and an eight-year old boy gazing in awe at a male Bullfinch sat in a tree just a few feet away.

Lowlights: Snipe 5, Herring Gull 8 N over, LBB Gull 2 incl 1 on SLRS, Common Gull 4, BH gull 23, Kestrel 2, GSW 2, Green Woodpecker 1, Jackdaw c20 in plughed field, Wood Pigeon c50+ over towards the Gibberd Garden, Song thrush 2, Blackbird 5, Redwing 2, Goldfinch 8, Chaffinch 4, Bullfinch 2, Greenfinch 5.

Hatfield Forest in the gloom

Hatfield Forest this morning. Took the 100-400 with the 1.4x to try and get some decent shots in the morning sunlight.

Little to report. I drove past flocks of finches on the way, but once at the forest birds were hard to come by. I went to the NW corner and eventually found a few birds. Apart form the usual woodland birds – Bullfinch, Nuthatch, GSW & GreenWood, the highlights were 11 Jays in total, and 3 Marsh Tits. Back to the lake for 2 GCG’s, 3 Teal, a few Pochard and Tufted Duck on the lake, and back to the car as the downpour set in.

Halfway round I realised that the reason I couldn’t seem to get a reasonable photo was the zoom extension was still locked from the previous trip, and I’d been taking pictures at 140mm. My punishment was the sun immediately disappearing so apologies for the photos from the gloom.

Tonight Mrs D is indignant. "How come Russell Brand has been introduced to the Queen and I haven't?"