Happy New Year !!!

The clock did it's job and ticked over midnight - So what will 2012 bring...

The weatherman was the first person to break his New Year's resolution (assuming that 'give a more accurate forecast' would be a good one to have if you're a weatherman). I planned News Year Day based on the forecast of grey skies with early drizzle clearing from the West. As it turned out the grey and drizzly bit was spot on, until around 11am when strong winds and heavy rain set in for the rest of the day, so it ended up being a case of match abandoned.

We were at home on New Years Eve so didn't have a particularly late one. I started the day early at Selsey Bill and in a two hour seawatch notched up Slavonian Grebe, Great Northern Diver, Black-throated Diver, Red-throated Diver, Guillemot, Razorbill, Shag, Kittiwake, Fulmar, Gannet, Med Gull and Red-breasted Merganser, not a bad start although there were only a few birds around with surprisingly no duck and the auks were only 1 of each and 2 skuas flew past just after I left at around 10 when I  went to Church Norton.  The tide was out, but a decent number of waders were in the harbour, Bar-tailed Godwit, Golden Plover, Knot, Dunlin, Turnstone, Curlew, Redshankl and an Avocet along with Teal, Wigeon, Pintail and a few Little Egrets. A single Chiffchaff was the passerine highlight, then I was getting very wet, I went back to the car intending to go on to Fishbourne Creek then to West Dean, but the weather just got worse so I headed home.

Not deterred  on the final day before back to work, I tried again yesterday (Monday). This time it was bright blue skies and around 8 or 9c and stayed that way for the whole day and a good year tick was my first view of the Sun !. I was out slightly later than yesterday and went to Burpham and walked up onto the Downs, there was no sign of the Bewick Swan flock overlooking the Arun, but surely this looked a good day for Raptors as unusually I hadn't seen one at all yesterday. I spent nearly 4 hours wandering around in comparatively glorious weather. I had no luck with the wintering Rough-legged Buzzard, which made an appearance later on in the day according to reports, but had 20+ Common Buzzards, 2 Red Kites, several Kestrels, Raven, Grey Partidge, Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Linnets and another Chiffchaff. I called in briefly at Rackham and again no more interesting Geese other than the Canada and Greylags, and then onto Waltham Brooks, where 2 Bewick Swans took flight from the flooded field near the bridge and 4 Short-Eared Owls were still giving great displays over the brooks. A final call into Burton Pond on the way home didn't yield any wintering Bittern, but the weather was great and I've started the year being out 2 days looking at birds and totalling around 90 species - can't be bad.

The pictures of the garden and fields below were taken on Friday - before the rain and wind !

Short-Eared Owl (light was slightly better than the other week)



4 Owls were contentedly hunting over the brooks - lovely



Watching Owls hunt in daylight is better than any Attenborough programme

View North West across the Burgh

View East across the Arable land - great for Birds of Prey

Winter at home - The Orchard



Fallen tree I need to do something with



Deer are nice to look at (and eat !)  but they eat everything- This was one of 4 bounding across the field.

Bottom corner where the Woodcock was seen.

The dribbling stream (rather than babbling brook) - but it fills after rain

View towards house from back field,