Wednesday 2nd Jan - New Year Birding

Tuesday 1st January

Happy New Year !!!

We had a quiet night watching the (spectacular) fireworks on TV last night, so it wasn't a particularly late one so I was up early and went out for a days birding, without a particular plan as to where I would end up but I headed first for Selsey Bill.

As with all things New Year, heightened anticipation is the key phrase that most fits the situation, irrespective of whether you've visited the same sites just the previous day, the thought of a New Years birdlist gets the pulse racing again for a few weeks. The weather was mild, fairly bright with a stiff North West wind, so a huge improvement on the rainy Christmas. A few regulars were already gathered at the Bill, but the birds were fairly slow in the couple of hours I was there, with c100 Common Scoter, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 3 Gannet, 1 Red-throated Diver, a dozen Red breasted Mergansers several Med Gulls and c20 Kittiwakes.

I drove to Siddlesham, parked up at the visitor centre and walked via the ferry pool to the harbour where the  tide was starting to rise. 3 Bearded Tits were in the reeds at the start of the long pool, which is unusual for here, and 15 Avocets were roosting at the end of the first creek. The harbour was very  different to a couple of weeks ago as it was teeming with birds. A few thousand Lapwing, several hundred Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Knot, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit all in good numbers along with Wigeon, Teal and Pintail. 3 Goldeneye were at the far end of the harbour, but new species then became difficult to find, with conspicuously no Turnstone, Ringed Plover or Bar-tailed Godwits on view.

Next stop was at the Burgh but despite the glorious weather the birds were again difficult to find. I did manage several Buzzards, 4 Red kites, 2 Corn Buntings and 20+ Grey Partridge, but nothing more. I headed towards Amberley wildbrooks looking at several floods for Winter Swans on the way without luck. A view from the village, showed an entire valley under water, with plenty of common wildfowl but nothing new for the day, so I headed for a last stop at Burton Mill to see if the Bittern would appear and just as the light was going and I was about to give up one flew in over the reedbed and dropped in to perform it's reed climbing at exactly 4.30pm just as I was ready to give up.

Wednesday 2nd Jan

My last day of the Christmas break before back to work and I stayed local. I wandered around the garden and the fields first thing. With birds on the feeders including Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch , Goldfinch ,Siskin, Nuthatch, Robin and Dunnock all worried by a male Sparrowhawk. A Green Woodpecker was calling and a commotion near the stables had  me peering into an ivy-clad oak where eventually I found the Tawny Owl. A Goldcrest and Treecreeper were also seen on my wander.

I then persuaded Adie to come on a walk from the house, the footpaths were still incredibly boggy. 3 Bullfinch were seen in the hedge in the closest field and a Buzzard and Great-spotted Woodpecker were added before we spent a while hovering over a moving Mole hill, as Adie has never seen a live Mole - we came close but it didn't surface, so inches away from seeing the real thing. 2 Marsh Tits were seen and with the large finch flock that had amassed around a big stubble field with around 100 Chaffinches, I found 3 Brambling and 6 Linnet. The furnace pond had no birds at all, so we re-traced our steps just before the rain started.