Ticking Along Nicely

Another very calm morning saw me leaving home at 6am where after cleaning the frost off the windscreen which was quite thick this morning I had a drive around the Reculver lanes in search of Owls. Again not much despite a good look but I may have seen a Long eared Owl when I caught sight of an Owl in my headlights as it left a post but it was only just viewable for a second before it flew out of view. My gut feeling was that it was a Long eared Owl but I really want a better view until I count it. As it got light I drove over to Shuart where I met Julian Perry and after looking for Woodcock for a while we completed the Shuart, Brooksend and Minnis loop in lovely sunny weather which took a couple of hours. Birds noted were 42 Red legged Partridge, 1 Grey Partridge, 1 Woodcock, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Peregrine, 2 Fieldfare, 7 Corn Bunting were the first of 7 year ticks today, 3 Common Buzzard, 1 Green Woodpecker, 20 Reed Bunting, 2 Grey Heron, 1 Firecrest called and showed briefly, 3 Pied Wagtail, year tick number 2, 1 Ring necked Parakeet, year tick number 3, 6 Mistle Thrush, year tick number 4 and 2 Marsh Harrier. There were 4 Canada Geese, year tick number 5 in with 50 Greylag Geese, year tick number 6, the photo below being taken last year at Reculver, 5 Wigeon, c30 Teal, year tick number 7 and c80 Lapwing. 

Canada Goose

Moving on towards the coast we noted 1 Little Grebe, 9 Great crested Grebe, 15 Sanderling, 15 Turnstone, 1 Red throated Diver, 10 Redshank and c400 Brent Geese were feeding in the fields at Minnis. Walking back past the stables I picked out a male Yellowhammer which showed briefly before vanishing into a bush never to be seen again, there seem to be a few wintering here at the moment. Another nice session in great weather and a walk I don't often do that much but will do now more often I think, I often tend to stay more at the Reculver end but there is a good range of habitats to be viewed on this circular walk. The year list continues to rise with 91 species and hopefully next week will see me nearing the 100 species mark........ weather and bird permitting!