February Snow and February Heatwave

This is a bit of a catch up as we are now at the end of March and I'm writing about what happened in the early part of Feb. Luckily, I was away at the end of Feb /beginning of March to the Canary Islands and have written a separate page on the successful trip.

Before the mini heatwave that struck in the middle of Feb, some Winter birding was still in order and indeed a decent snowfall overt the weekend of the 1st / 2nd. In itself, this cold snap didn't really do much for the local birds in terms of change or variety and there was no cold weather movement to speak of, as the cold spell was short-lived. I couldn't get to Blackdown following the snowfall as the roads were blocked so ended up at the Devils Punchbowl in Hindhead, with wintery scenes lots of people and lots of dogs.

After a bit of a thaw I had a trip to Fishbourne Creek on 5th Feb and although rather gloomy weather was quite birdy.

Highlights were a single Spotted Redshank, 3 Greenshank, good view of a Kingfisher and plenty of common waders and ducks a few Rock Pipits and Yellowhammer.

Kingfisher

I also found that I had volunteered to do the Wealden Heath survey at Stanley and Lynchmere commons. I quite like Stanley Common although the habitat is reasonably limited as the decent heathland area is quite small. Lynchmere I never get on well with as it is more poor scrub and generally overrun with dogs. I did my first visit on 13th Feb, with the highlight being a single Woodlark giving brief snippets of songflighting. A few Siskin, Redpoll and common woodland species were present but it was fairly quiet which was not surprising given the time of year.

Otherwise local birds have consisted of several Goshawk sightings, a single Peregrine and local Red Kites, being visible more frequently. The main highlight in the garden is a small build up of Brambling numbers to a consistent 8 birds by the end of Feb.

At the end of the month I went for my 10 day trip to the canaries.