Saturday 19th March - Hey diddle diddle, the cow couldn't manage this big one.

.. An appropriately big Moon for Hannah's birthday. After a cold and wet Friday, suddenly a bright and sunny weekend (admittedly 11c isn't quite barbecue time, but a vast improvement).

Spring flowers flourishing in the garden

A Chiffchaff was singing as it moved through the garden, and the Redwings have been joined by a similar number of Fieldfares, 2 Ravens were sitting in a tree in the layby opposite the house.  A post-lunch Sunday afternoon walk around Heyshott and Ambersham common was fairly quiet with Siskin, Stonechat and Meadow Pipit being the highlights.

The biggest moon in a number of years.

Local Buzzard

Saturday 12th March - Chasing tails in Hampshire

It all seemed to start so well... .

Gary Howard and I decided to look for the White-tailed Eagle which had been present in the Old Basing area for the last couple of weeks, probably the same bird I had seen in December at Amberley but not a bird you could easily tire of viewing.

It was no more than an hour from home, so Gary came here on Friday evening and we caught up sinking a mere couple of flageons of ale in the pub before our early morning departure. 3 Tawny Owls were calling as we loaded the car and we arrived on site shortly before 7am. One other birder was already helpfully at the designated spot which was an elevated position looking north over a valley near Blacklands Farm, there was no real outlook to the South but this was definitely the best viewing position in the vicinty. The only downside.. it was next to a huge open farm cespit, which was full of liquid bovine output, attractively surrounded by a 'feature' barbed-wire fence with a bizarre side-show of a couple of dozen Magpies flailed on the barbs ! - possibly signifying a local ritual which results in attracting Eagles to the area ?

Despite the aromatherapy, we started to notch up a decent number of local birds Skylarks, Fieldfares, Yelllowhammer, Linnet, displaying Lapwing, Golden Plover, Red Kite, Buzzard (including and exceptionally pale individual), Kestrel, Little Egret a couple of Hares and Roe Deer ...... all very pleasant but no sign of the Eagle. We exchanged numbers with another birder who went to check the copses further south and later returned having had no luck. It was clear that the Eagle ranged over a fair distance but had typically been seen from the site we occupied. Five hours later, the numbers of birders (and interested locals) increased steadily, rather than the birds. We had drunk all the coffee and pretty much concluded that perhaps today was Eagle no-show day....... so we headed down to the New Forest. Just as we arrived at the forest, less than an hour later, a phone call from the birder we'd exchanged numbers with telling us he was watching the Eagle perched on the floor of the valley.... too late to go back .... maybe .. !!!!

Cursing over, we continued to Beaulieu Road, eat our garage lunch, spoke with some other birders, who appeared to have had a remarkably succesful morning in the Forest, then headed towards the territory where the Shrike had been seen. We glimpsed what we both thought was a male Hen Harrier that disappeared quickly behind some trees to be replaced by a Buzzard flying nearby .. a trick of the light ?, so we left it as uncertain.  After a little searching we found the Great Grey Shrike hunting from some scattered Birches and very successfully cleaning up on large Bumblebees. We got good views, although not quite close enough for good pictures, but a very smart bird. Other birds in the area included Siskin, Lesser Redpoll and Bullfinch, but we were still bothered by the Eagle... So much so, that just after 3pm we headed back to Old Basing. The Eagle had not been seen since around 1pm so we did a few circuits of the lanes before settling back into our position next to the cespit... roll on dusk and save for adding Sparrowhawk, Redwing and a few other common species we lucked out on the Eagle.

We can look back and wish that we'd stayed on in the morning, but in all put in nearly an 8 hour shift at the favoured spot and endured the stench... just the way it goes !

View over Bishops Dyke, New Forest

Great Grey Shrike - Bishops Dyke area Beaulieu, New Forest

Friday 11th March - A Spring Bird !

Managed a fleeting visit to Pulborough Brooks. Temperature not more than 9c but it was momentarily bright and a little Spring-like. A Little-Ringed Plover was on the North brooks, and is my first Spring migrant this year and was worthy of a record photo, if a little distant. Despite the low temperature an Adder was visible on the footpath taking in some rays. A single White-fronted Goose was at the back of the brooks and had characteristics of the Greenland race. The water levels were still reasonable and there were still numbers of Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler with just 2 Pintail seen.

Early Spring Adder

Little-ringed Plover - a first arrival

Teal

Roe Deer, Pulborough

Monday 7th March - Woodcock

...again tonight just after 6.30pm as it was getting dark and the Blackbirds had finished their song and chinking, I went outside and the Woodcock flew over my head and down the length of the garden, although not calling this time - probably one that's escaped the local guns this Winter and must be daytime roosting either in the roadside strip of trees or the copse on the opposite side of the road..

Sunday 6th March - Spring with a very small 's'

There are signs of Spring - but a long way to go  - a cold but eventually bright Sunday finished another week where haven't been able to do any proper birding (although in a way I'm never not birding).

More than a slight shock to the system to think I might be selling the house and moving. On Saturday, Hannah and Sally went to Sheffield as the school was in the BBC choir competition and I spent it with Adie and we looked at 2 houses - Adie's view fell into either 'Really Cool' or '..iiiickk'  and I'm not sure what other birders are like but the ability to attract birds to the garden has always been a key part of my life and so part of me ignores what size and shape the rooms are and goes straight for the garden - If I see nothing on the bird front and see a lack of potential (having studied the OS map) , it unfortunately registers quite a strong negative in my opinion - Just adding another difficulty to what is already proving a challenge - Estate Agents haven't yet cottoned on to the fact that producing a bird list for the property might increase values considerably (unless they're really stringy !).

The garden birds are getting towards full gusto with their dawn songs. I've still got a good size Chaffinch and Goldfinch flock around the feeders. The local Buzzards are displaying vigorously - I counted 12 at one time in 2 stacks last weekend. I still have marauding Sparrowhawks in the garden and a pair of Mallards have been in the veggie patch and then the pond. I've seen a pair of Egyptian Geese flying over on more than one occasion this week (another first for the garden list)  - The Petworth park population is up to 8 birds and the chap that runs the trout farm has been saying they've been visiting daily since the turn of the year. The 100+ strong flock of Redwing is still frequenting the field and regularly swoop into the Oaks around the garden and are now incessantly chattering, probably indicating their restlessness and indicating they'll soon be travelling North.

Roll on Spring......

This Fella is gearing up to blast out his version of Bohemium Rhapsody.

Marsh Tit

A few of the 100+ Redwings in garden Oak trees.