New Years Listing in Bedfordshire

My January 1st list was pretty pathetic as I didn't get up till gone midday and when I did I had to drive myself and 4 others back from central london after a short recovery period! So my day list didn't make it into double figures, Highlights being feral pigeon and back-headed gull, plus some lovely views of woodpigeons :-\. When I finally got back I slept till it was too dark for birding. To sum it up Jan 1st was a write off.

So I decided to do a new years day plus 1 list around Bedfordshire.

Didn't try too hard, birding from 9am till 2pm but had a great time and racked up 59 species! with several new ones in Beds for me, and of course many year ticks!

Started at Cifton looking at the finch flock, Highlights being:

8+ Tree Sparrows (dreadful photo);

3+ House Sparrow;

4+ Brambling;

Yammers;

Loads of Reed Buntings;

Linnit;

Fieldfare;

A roosting male sparrowhawk was nice here aswell although he was hiding;

Was nice to meet a fellow Beds birder (John Temple), and like him I moved on to Swiss Gardens next to try and locate the female firecrest with no luck on my side, lots of goldcrest though and picked up some new year ticks here.

Highlights here being 6 manderins, another Beds tick for me!! A fly over grey heron put in an appearance, photo in black and white (trying to be artistic with a different view to the normal):

From here I went to Blumham lakes hoping to see the gargany. After finally finding what I think was the lake I could not locate the garg'. Still there were lots of year ticks here and it was a very busy, bird filled lake..

From here I tried to find Moggerhanger village hall to see corn buntings and skylark, but foolishly I forget to look were it was on the internet before leaving home, so couldn't find it :-S.

Decided to go to The Lodge next for a flapjack and a wander in the woods. Nothing new for the day list but got some better photos here:

Was a nice day, best bird being the tree sparrows!

Year List is now a staggering (well maybe not) 60! 145 to go if I'm to beat last year!!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Wildlife

Here are a few shots from when I stayed at my Aunties in Woking, nothing spectacular but was nice to see a grey wag when on the post 'face stuffing' lunch walk. It felt as though everything was grey...

GREY Wag:

GREY Heron:

GREY Squirrel (possesed by the devil):

Stopped in at Stevenage on the route home hoping to see the Waxwings again, and brighten up all the 'greyness'. Taking my mum on her first 'twitch', even if it was only a small one!!

Bring on 09 birding and my second year list, looks like I'l finish this year on 204, not bad considering I'm at Uni most of the time so busy alot and can't afford to spend ££££ on petrol, although it is very tempting sometimes!!

Merry Christmas and a happy, bird filled, new year!

WAXWING at last!!

Saw on birdguides that the 10 Waxwing in Stevenage were back today and before I dropped Sam off at the station I thought we should have a go for them.

Fantastic!!! There they were with a few other people watching them. Rubbish light but who cares, just watching them was great, such nice birds.

I did get some photos that I'm happy with but they speant most of the time right at the top of the tree!!

Will plan a return trip if they hang about in a nicer day with some sunshine!!

North Norfolk

Had a very successful trip to Norfolk with Eddie and Sam, all seeing new species of birds.

We started the day at Salthouse to try and see the snow buntings as Sam had not seen them before. It didn't take long before we were watching them flying and feeding along the beach. Great start to the day!

Things got even better when the glaucous gull, who has been there for a while, flew in and landed right near us, having forgotten that this was about we were very excited when it found us, a new bird for all three of us and a very charismatic little guy:

Here are a few photos of the snow buntings, managed a few dodgy flight shots aswell:

The turnstone here are very tame aswell:

Next we moved on to Holkham gap where we didnt see much other than sanderling, but this was new for Sam.

After not spending long enough to make the £3.50 parking fee worth it we headed on to RSPB Titchwell hoping to do some sea watching and see some hen harriers.

Highlights here included:

well over 1000 common scoter

Eider

Many Red Breasted Mergansers

Close views of a sanderling (pic below)

Merlin putting up all the lapwings

Female Hen Harrier over the marsh, fantastic bird and a new one for Ed.

After this we went to thr drying barns behind Titchwel hoping to see the hen harrier roost and maybe see some owls.

Well the owls didn't appear but we had fantastic views of another female hen harrier hunting over the field next to us.

We also had the added bonus of having a female merlin fly along side the car when we were driving home!!

Still no bloody waxwings though!!!

The lodge

Eddie and I thought we would try find what is fast becoming our bogy bird, and as one had been seen in the area we were quietly hopeful.

Well we were silly to be as we did not find what we wanted- waxwing!! I'm begining to think these birds don't exsist, is everyone making them up?

Our hearts were racing at one point as we heard one calling loudly from not too far away! fantastic call, perhaps they do exsist? Or was this someone with a tape player? hmmm, I'm not convinced.

Synchronising watches Eddie and I split up to try and find it..but we produced nothing and it didn't call again! Probably because it went to join the 10 seen just down the road at Biggleswade, which we didn't read about untill we got back home!! Ahhh the frustration, but it's just going to make it all the more exciting when we do finally see one! Hopefully it will be self-found but if they are reported I'm jumping straight in the car!!

Nice views of Kingfisher (never seen the Lodge one before) and some playful and rowdy great-spotted woodies:

Crap lighting prevented anything really nice, but I think I'l go back to see the Kingy in better weather as he/she was a showy little blighter!

'the haven'

Speant Saturday at tichfieled haven, we wern't there for very long so not too much to report but got a few photos:

Turnstone:

Cormorant:

House Sparrow:

Coot:

Little Grebe:

Fluvous Whistling Duck:Green Woodpecker:

Keyhaven and The New Forest

Had a great day today, Sam and I managed to rack up 73 species which we were pleased with. Highights being:

Hawfinch, Red-Breasted Goose, Slav Grebe, Water Pipit, Kingfisher, Bullfinch.

Here are a few photos:

Bullfinch:
Wigeon:

Little Egret:
Reed Bunting:
Stonechat
Turnstone
Robin:

Pheasant:
Mallard:

Few Hawfinch record shots: