Had a couple of mornings in really local bits of the New Forest (although if I'm honest, still not so local that I'd have done them by bike, if I owned one that is). Nice to see decent numbers of thrushes, mostly Redwings, but also the other four regular species.
Fieldfare was less cooperative than the others!
Not all the attempts at photography quite went to plan (even less so than usual!).
Marsh Tit (in case you're wondering)
After Tuesday morning being a densely foggy waste of time and a full day of work on Wednesday, Thursday I had a nice patch walk in the morning. Nice yes, but oh so frustrating without a scope: plenty of stuff out to, and on the, sea that was out of range with just bins. I don't necessarily use the scope that often, but it is still a bit of a bind not having it for those times it's required.
So that evening I finally decided I WOULD listen to Mrs K, and dug around in the loft for my old Opticron Classic IF-2 scope (I was sure it wouldn't be there, and if it was wouldn't be any use), so old that they haven't made them for 18 years! I didn't expect much, but took it out Friday aaaand . . . fair to say I was quietly impressed. Narrow field of view aside it was optically perfectly adequate. After an hour at Barton I had a compulsive complete change of tack and headed east to the farthest reaches of my #LocalBigYear circle, to Sowley Pond, a site I used to visit regularly (in fact 35 years ago I briefly worked on Sowley Estate) but haven't been to for a few years. It's so much on the edge of the circle in fact, that only one half of the pond is actually IN the circle. But that half held Goosander and Mandarin. Pochard was in the wrong half, but by standing inside the circle and looking out I could see them, so I was having it! Three decent species for the local list. Pochard is a tough one anywhere else locally.
Then yesterday (Saturday) it was back to Barton for 1½ hrs at the western end of patch before a load more work. Too bad I didn't have longer because the sea was dead calm, like glass, and actually had a load of birds on it. Highlight was a mega count of 75 Great Crested Grebes, about three times more than my previous highest count here, and the Opticron performed well enough that I could unfortunately rule out Red-necked for all of them. Also half a dozen Shags (Barton is easily the best site in Hampshire for them), 3 Red-throated Divers, a Guillemot and a Common Scoter. Just west of the little shopping parade a couple of Water Rails were heard from the damp scrubby undercliff (a seemingly regular site for them, despite the unlikely look of the habitat), where there was also a Chiffchaff.
And then this morning I had a really very enjoyable session following my usual route east to Hordle Cliff. Unlike yesterday, the sea, whilst still calm, had a bit of chop to it todays, but even so seemed to have far fewer birds (I could I find one GC Grebe).
The golf course pools miraculously held the female Wigeon again, after several absences. Maybe she's just been hiding in the vegetation or behind a bank.
Made my way slowly along to Hordle Cliff, where I was extremely surprised to find, feeding in a field in a decent flock of 57 Curlews, the Whimbrel that I'd seen briefly on New Year's Day. Often out of view in the long grass or the wrong side of the slope I nevertheless managed to at least get some distant record shots of it this time.
Oddest record of the morning was this adult Common Gull (not a species seen with reliable regularity here anyway) on the golf course, with an apparently misshapen head!
Had vague plans for a little more wandering in the next few days, but with the calm conditions set to continue until midweek at least it seems a shame not to make the most of them on patch, where the year list is ticking along nicely at 79, but still has plenty of potential for additions.
#LocalBigYear stands at 125.
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