Hello,
At the moment, I have spent the beginning of my year going to Pitsford Reservoir on a regular basis in order to get my Patchwork Challenge year list off to a healthy start. I have enjoyed many good birds over the last couple of weeks including up to eleven Pintails, two Green Sandpipers, two Redshanks, a few Red-Crested Pochards, two White Fronted Geese, Yellow Legged Gulls, Caspian Gulls, a first winter Mediterranean Gull, a Slavonian Grebe, a Stonechat, five Bewick's Swans, one or two Little Owls, a Brambling, a Goosander and a Peregrine. So all in all it hasn't been a bad start to the year with 79 species and 88 points.
I have also been on a failed twitch this year to look for a Pine Bunting at Venus Pool, Shropshire however, I did end up seeing my first Corn Buntings in a year or so. However that was the only notable species for the day even though we were waiting for five hours or so in a field.
On January 7th and 8th I and a few others completed two Short Day Counts, one in the 10km square, SP55 and one in SP54. We completed SP54 on the 8th and it really came into its own on that day. We recorded a total of 73 species in a matter of 8 hours however this was mainly of common species and the best birds of the weekend were seven Waxwings in Woodford Halse in the square SP55.
Then yesterday, I spent the morning help complete a bird ringing demonstration at Stanwick Lakes. We had a good turnout of birds and people and the public seemed to be very interested in what was going on and seeing the birds up close for the very first time. Highlights of the session included a few Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Goldcrests and Redwings but there was still plenty of the more common birds. Birds on-site included four Goosanders, a Brambling, a Siskin, a Kingfisher, a Chiffchaff, a Snipe and a few Water Rails. We then ventured to Fined where Short Eared Owls have been seen, we waited for a good couple of hours then to our amusement as we left I got a phone call saying that six have just came out of roost, yet another dip!
Regards,
Jacob
