Wednesday 28th December - Home slouch

Three days of solid drinking and eating has made me a little slow ! - but a lovely time with friends and family. Sal was back to work this morning, so before the girls had surfaced and after I'd let the ducks and chickens out, I had a wander around the garden, wood and paddock. The wooded gully at this time of year is much more visible with all the trees naked so you can see down to the stream more clearly, it is normally a very small trickle that swells a little to stream size after a downpour, slightly surprising to find 12 Mallard dabbling away - a new bird for the house list. The feeders had been busy this morning with plenty of Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and the male Bullfinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit and Long-tailed Tit, Nuthatch, Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, Starlings, Stock Dove and Woodpigeon. Further along the path (there's a fallen tree I will have to get rid of) the Alders were still alive with  Siskin and Goldfinches. Both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers made an appearance then as I approached the bottom fence the biggest surprise as I flushed a Woodcock from an open patch of damp leaves. It shot off and away but a great bird to record at home. A small number of Redwing were in the woods (vastly reduced from the large flock in early November). The last surprise of the morning were later on when I was outside with Hannah and 8 Crossbills flew over calling, I actually saw them this time having previously only had a couple of heard only birds I couldn't locate.

The bird I flushed was too quick for a picture .

Siskin in Alders

18th December- Xmas Stress

Saturday 17th - So the morning was spent with Hannah and Adie shopping in Chichester for last minute presents (although there is no difference between my last minute presents and any others). My modus operandi for this is to strategically have a plan to quickly raid the pre-identified shops and evacuate the invaded area as soon as practicable. Adie is cool with all of this, but Hannah is now 11 going on 12  and appears to have taken on a considerable amount of her Mother's prowess when it comes to shops which include browsing shops with no intent to buy !!! - evidenced by comments such as 'Daddy am I holding you up'. Eventually, job done, and with shortening breath and quickening footsteps we squeezed out of the infected area. Luckily both girls had different social engagements in the afternoon and I dropped them off and headed out birding.

With being away for 3 weeks and seeing over 500 species of birds in fantastic light and surroundings it can be a struggle to adjust back to UK birding but with not much daylight I headed to the Arun valley and firstly to Rackham overlooking the lower brooks. A huge amount of wildfowl habited the floods. Thousands of Lapwing, Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Shoveler and straggles of Canada and Greylag Geese, but no more interesting varieties. A Peregrine sortie briefly scattered the birds. About 40 Black-tailed Godwit were resting and 5 Ruff were with the Lapwing. The woods were quiet, but Goldcrest, Marsh Tit, Treecreepers, Fieldfare and Redwing were all seen.

About 3pm I headed to Waltham Brooks where at least 4 Short-eared Owls spent the next hour giving great hunting displays. A little distant and dark for good pics but fantastic to have so many of these birds in a local site, where traditionally one would be a good record.

 At home today (Sunday 18th), a male Bullfinch visited the feeders, again a rare sight. Other birds seen were Nuthatch, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Marsh Tit, Long-tailed tit, Coal Tit, Blue and Great Tits, Siskins in the trees, Pied Wagtail in front of the house and lots of Starlings. Tawny Owls have kept us awake in the last week when it's not been blowing a hooly.

Short-eared Owl - one of 4 at Waltham Brooks.

Sunset over the brooks (behind a funny cloud).



Male Bullfinch in garden- Must clean the windows- oh forgot it's always dark now.



10th December - Back Home !

Well I was actually back last weekend but straight back to work. I've now managed to sort out the holiday pictures and have started a seperate Ethiopia blog entry under the tab on the right of this page .... It might take a while to finish this !!!

Well I didn't take this in the garden !