I appear to be writing this when the first singing Chiffchaffs have arrived at home, following a week of unseasonably warm and sunny spell giving a real feel that Spring is here.
Even though last update was the second week of Jan, this was followed by spending nearly 3 weeks in Costa Rica - not a birding trip - but a great country to visit and fantastic wildlife and a blog report will eventually find its way on here.
Since returning, some Winter birding has been fitted in. Until a week ago the weather had been particularly cold, but mainly calm and dry, with frost, fog and misty mornings being persistent.
Locally, I have more frequently walked between the house and Furnace Pond. Some highlights have been 2 or 3 Woodlark,a large flock of finches in the arable field which has currently been left full of clover, with over 200 Chaffinches 100+ Linnets, a few Greenfinch and one or two Brambling. The Furnace Pond had a Teal count of 28, several Mandarin, Kingfisher with probably 2 Goshawk pairs locally, although they only started to be visibly displaying at the very start of March. I had a run of Hawfinch sightings at home, mostly singles but 2 seen last week on the 5th and unusually my first Firecrest for the year was near the Furnace Pond on the 5th, I've not had one in the garden this year as yet.
A last minute 2 day trip to Norfolk, which was not really a birding trip, added a few species. Calling in at Welney WWT on the way to the coast, seeing the 1,000+ Whooper Swans, a few Bewicks and 5 Tundra Bean Geese, amongst thousands of common wildfowl was another spectacle and still nice to see a number of Tree Sparrows there. I manged to see 5 Shorelark on the beach at Holkham gap, with a Greater White-fronted Goose in with the Pink-feet and 9 Lesser White-fronted Geese were nice to see, although being from a seemingly successful Swedish re-introduction scheme they will no doubt be in Category E, which the birding police wouldn't allow you to count. But seeing 9 species of 'gooses' over a couple of days was quite good going.
The biggest surprise of the period was a nearby Black-throated Thrush that turned up in someone's garden in Lindford (about 20 minutes from me, just over the county border in Hampshire). Even through it was a private garden, access was arranged for a few hours on a slightly misty Saturday morning and I went along with Paul Bowley and amongst 50-100 other birders saw the very smart male Black-throated Thrush, which was a new bird for me.
I have visited Selsey and the Selsey peninsula a few times, without any significant Spring migration yet as it's a little early still, but still seeing some of the peninsula's good birds Slavonian Grebe, Great-northern Diver, Long-tailed Duck, Black Redstart, Long-eared Owl.
Here's hoping for a good spring haul.
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| Black-throated Thrush |
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| Black-throated Thrush |
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| Migrating ? Brent Geese |
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| Common Scoter |
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| Great-Northern Diver |
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| Black Redstart |
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| Pintail and Shoveler |
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| Skylark |
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