This really is a slow time of year and with weather barely conducive to spending time outside and very little in the way of new bids moving, another way of saying it would be a good time to be away birding in a foreign country.
A summary of the last couple of weekends can be short. On the 25th I went to Furnace Pond always in the hope of finding a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, but a complete blank so far this year. There was a good size Linnet flock here of c 300 birds in the cover crop field just before the pond, in addition to c40+ Chaffinches, at least 8 Brambling were seen. The pond itself had a fairly low water level, but the Winter Teal group of c12 birds was visible along with a similar number of Mandarin, a Moorhen and 2 Grey Herons. The Grey Wagtail pair were around the sluice.
At home in the afternoon a short raptor watch produced 2 Goshawk, Red Kite, 6+ Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk and 2 Raven. Whilst a couple of Redwing were seen and there is still a commute of Linnets of up to 40 at a time over the house and garden my guess is moving between the Furnace Pond and Lower House Farm where both sites have a cover crop and flocks of c300+.
On Sunday 26th, with little else to see, I went to the Blashford area with Paul and Matt Bowley, we started at the flood meadows in Harbridge seeing decent numbers of Lapwing, Meadow Pipit, Fieldfare and Redwing and then had a flyover Marsh Harrier, Red Kite and a Peregrine. We moved onto the hides at Ibsley water, there had been a Black-necked Grebe reported recently but there was no sign today. A few Goldeneye and 5 Goosander were highlights, others duck species including Pochard, Tufted Duck, Shoveler and, Pintail. The feeders in the other part of the reserve had some nice Siskin, Reed Bunting and Nuthatch but all in all a fairly quiet morning. Roll on Spring.
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| Part of the local Linnet flock - c120 birds in this picture |
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| A small flock of c12 Teal have spent the Winter on the Furnace Pond |
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| At least c12 Mandarin also on the Furnace Pond |
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| Brambling near the Linnets |
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| Tufted Duck at Blashford |
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| Goosander at Blashford |
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| Goosander |
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| The only Brambling I've seen at home this year with Chaffinches, I only noticed after looking more closely at the photo that this bird has been ringed, although the ring is not readable from this picture. |
