Sunday 7th February - A toe in the water

The constant stream of Winter Storms seems never ending, which so far this year has been part of my excuse for staying very local when it comes to birding excursions (as well as the slight lack of time). So the last couple of days has at least seen a minor amount of time dedicated to art of looking for birds in a rotten UK Winter, so it does feel like dipping a toe in the water rather than a full plunge.

A trip to Dorset for a dinner with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage coupled a return journey with a brief stop at Blashford Lakes on Friday. Luckily there they have hides as it started to rain heavily. A few Goldeneye, brightened up the main lake along with small numbers of Wigeon, Gadwall, Pochard and Tufted Duck and a few Egyptian Geese were surrounded by Lapwing. Amongst the familiar Gull species on the water an adult Ring-billed Gull was picked out with just about enough visibility and distance to make it out from the Common Gulls.

Another coastal visit beckoned this morning as my first visit to Selsey since the autumn. A very strong WSW was blowing with high waves although it remained bright enough and dry for the couple of hours I was there. It was quite slim pickings with the best being 2 Great Northern Divers, 3 Red-throated Divers a few distant Gannet, Kittiwake and single Fulmar, a dozen Red-breasted Mergansers, a a couple of large wader flocks consisted of Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin.

Last weekend I participated in the official Big Garden Birdwatch for just over an hour on the Sunday and ended up with 26 Species. Looking back I realised the last time I kept a proper official count was 2013 when it was a poor year with only 18 species recorded (in brackets below). list below

                             2016                  (2013)
Buzzard                 1                       -
Pheasant                1                       -
Jackdaw                12                    (2)
Magpie                 1                       (1)
Raven                   1                       -
Woodpigeon         7                      (2)
Stock Dove           3                      (2)
Blackbird              8                      (5)
Song Thrush         2                        -
Robin                    1                      (2)
Dunnock               1                      (1)
Wren                     1                      -
Blue Tit                 5                      (3)
Great Tit                2                      (5)
Coal Tit                 2                      (2)
Marsh Tit              1                      -
Long-tailed Tit      2                      (1)
Chaffinch              16                    (5)
Goldfinch              8                     (10)
Siskin                    20                   (4)
Greenfinch            5                      -
Brambling             3                      -
Bullfinch               1                      -
Redpoll                  4                     -
Nuthatch                1                     (1)
Starling                   1                    (6)
GS Woodpecker     -                    (1)
Jay                          -                    (1)
Species Total        26                 (18)

The finch flock remains fairly strong and the Brambling were still showing this weekend. I didn't record a Woodpecker during the Birdwatch but both Great-Spotted and Green had been around the previous day.