Wednesday 2 January 2013

Unexpected Outing!

I had planned to stay in all day today as I was out for most of yesterday but this morning my wife announced that she was going out with a friend and the girls were going as well. This meant I had an unexpected birding trip so after getting ready I left home at 10am and spent 3 hours walking around Reculver trying to pick up on a few missed birds from yesterday. The weather was not quite like yesterday in that it was quite cloudy and the drizzle started around midday, however I plodded on and saw a few new species for the year. I walked from the towers down the seawall and cut inland at Coldharbour and had a quick look around Chambers Wall before returning the way I had come. Birds noted were 24 Mute Swan, c400 Brent Geese including 1 Pale bellied Brent Goose, 3 Curlew, 7 Oystercatcher, 5 Turnstone, 2 Redshank, 42 Ringed Plover, 2 Sanderling, 2 Grey Plover, 1 Marsh Harrier (56), 2 Grey Heron, 1 Little Egret, 2 Greylag Geese and c40 Golden Plover flew west. There were 4 Great crested Grebe offshore, 2 Stonechat were along the seawall at Coldharbour, 1 Wigeon (57) was heard from an unseen pool, 1 Grey Wagtail (58) was seen calling over the bushes at Chambers Wall, 1 Fieldfare (59), 1 Kingfisher (60) flew down the Wantsum and 1 Red throated Diver (61) flew east as well as 3 Common Scoter (62). A quick look in the caravan park on my way out produced 1 Goldcrest (63) and a few Rook (64) were in the fields. I had a look at an area south of Reculver and noticed 2 Grey Partridge (65) sat in fields as I drove past. The light was bad and it was now raining but I took a few record shots of this declining species so I can't really complain. I will probably be in for a few days now but anticipate the next new batch of year ticks soon. A few easy ones have not been seen by me yet including Redwing, Great and Long tailed Tit, Jackdaw, Sparrowhawk and Great spotted Woodpecker to name a few.

Grey Partridge

9 comments:

  1. Marc.
    What a nice unexpected day out it has turned out to be. Some good species seen on your walk.

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  2. Interesting you saw two Grey Partridge today, a species you mentioned you'd previously seen when I posted about their decline....Excellent shot in the birds environment Marc.

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  3. Nice pic Marc, sounds like a good start over the last couple of days, I love the start of a New Year :-)

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  4. I bet you were gutted when the family decided they were all off out for the day Marc.........not :-)

    Ive got all those easy species you've not seen yet, this is about the only time of year I can say that!

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  5. Love that shot with the surrounding field stubble! It's always nice to get an unexpected photo trip!

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  6. Very nice picture of a bird I would love to photograph!
    Well done Marc!

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  7. To answer your question on "Libellules de France...", I use a Nikon D5100 with a macro Sigma 150, as explained here, under the header:
    http://1000-pattes.blogspot.fr
    Cheers Marc!

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