Tuesday 1 January 2013

New Years Day Birding

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all and I hope it turns out to be a good one with lots of birds and wildlife to see and photograph. I was out of the house with excitement this morning at 6.30am where a few minutes later I was parking up near Reculver. After a cup of coffee I decided to walk down towards the towers and take in what birds I could. The excellent thing is that everything is new again. Birds I noted early on where 1 Bewick's Swan which was very vocal before flying south in the growing light. There were 45 Mute Swan, 8 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard, 3 Grey Heron, 1 Little Egret, 7 Meadow Pipit, 5 Little Grebe, 1 Water Rail, 1 Green Woodpecker and a few passing Black headed and Herring Gulls. Moving on to the seawall I walked on down to Coldharbour before walking inland to Chambers Wall. The usual commoner birds were seen as well as 35 Cormorant, 7 Moorhen, c300 Brent Geese, c30 Linnet, 24 Ringed Plover, 12 Turnstone, 3 Curlew, 28 Grey Plover, 15 Sanderling, 9 Goldfinch, 12 Reed Bunting, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Stonechat, 1 Great crested Grebe, 1 Cetti's Warbler, 27 Lapwing, 1 Golden Plover, 1 Kestrel, 1 Pheasant, 3 Greylag Geese and 3 Waxwing showed well but on the wrong side of the railway line which prevented any photo opportunities. I met Phil Parker here and after deciding it was hard going having seen 54 species already we decided as the sun was shining to take a trip over to Bossenden Woods at Blean to see if we could photograph some birds on the 'log'. After dropping the car off at home I jumped in Phil's car and 30 minutes later we pulled up at the woods. A few other birders had the same idea but we spent the next 90 minutes having lovely views and photo opportunities of 3 Marsh Tit, 3 Coal Tits, 1 Nuthatch, numerous Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinch, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker also flew over and 2 Common Buzzards circled the woods. A great start to the year with some nice photos in the bag and probably the best views I have ever seen of Marsh Tits. Thanks for driving Phil and hopefully the year can continue like this please!



Marsh Tit


Coal Tit

9 comments:

  1. Hi Marc,
    At last some light! Lovely Marsh and Coal tit, didn't find the ''Pittswood'' Marsh Tit today :-(

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  2. Lovely pics!
    I have a special incline for these soft looking fellows!
    How wonderful to have the Coal tit around, I have never seen it where I live!
    A very happy New Year, Marc, and may all your dearest wishes come to be!
    Cheers!

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  3. I love the Tits, and yours are beautiful.

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  4. Beautiful shots Marc! What a lovely way to begin the year....Happy New Year!

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  5. Excellent photos Marc , i must do a woodland visit soon.

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  6. Marc.
    ** Happy New Year **
    Great photo's of the Marsh Tit, looking lovely in that light. The sighting of Waxwing on new years day is pretty good.
    You seem to be off to a flyer.

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