Northern Visitors

No the relatives have not arrived from Cumbria ! The garden was graced by 2 Lesser Redpolls on the feeders today the first birds since the back end of the year a year tick for the patch and always great birds to see .
We added 6 new species today with the above, Red Legged Partridge ( 5 today), a flyover Linnet (the first for a number of weeks ), Sparrowhawk, Cormorant  over, Canada Geese on the floods.
On the patch itself there were more normal numbers of Redwing with 100 plus and Fieldfare with 110 plus seen the rest having moved on.
Only 4 Skylark today but I did not walk through their favoured field so there are probably more around.
2 Bullfinch in the hedgerows were nice ,and there were 6 Stock Dove about. The only other raptors were 2 low flying Buzzards .
 The best of the rest were Green Woodpecker, Greater Spotted Woodpecker and a single Mistle Thrush.
 The patch list now stands at 47 , not bad for the 12th of January   

Sunny Saturday

A fantastic morning, a slight frost ,clear blue skies ,slight breeze, get out on the patch my son and that is what Willow and I did.
So first of all the most obvious birds were Fieldfare with 200 plus and Redwing with a whooping 500 plus feeding on the damp pasture and hedgerows ,a couple of Mistle Thrush and a sprinkling of Song Thrushes were also about. There was also 300 plus Starling keeping them company.
Overall it was pretty quiet but we did bump up the species number by 3 with a fine male Yellowhammer ,an unseen Moorhen calling from a pond and a couple of Long Tailed Tits on the feeders.
Raptors were represented by 3 Buzzards getting the most out of the conditions . Stock doves were about with 7 seen today and the Skylark flock numbered 25 plus. There was just a single Meadow Pipit today.
I have also noticed over the last couple of days some very high flying flocks of Woodpigeons heading north and East are they already moving north ? ,they look as if they are but it would seem a little early yet .That been said there is certainly more bird song than of late with Dunnock, Song Thrush, Great Tit ,Stock Dove all chipping in
The species count now stands at 41.

A midweek update

Midweek on the patch and the usual time restraints meant only brief visits, but still a few highlights. Firstly was a fine sighting of a Fox strolling across a flooded field ,great to see !
Winter Thrushes both Fieldfare and Redwing were present in good number with peak counts of 70 plus Redwing and 138 plus Fieldfare there were also a couple of Mistle Thrush thrown in for good measure.
The Skylark flock seems to be thinning out with a peak of 14 and Meadow Pipits are steady still at 14 birds .It is nice to report that we achieved a count of 4 Raven on Friday not just the usual 1 or 2.
A Peregrine Falcon stormed across the patch no doubt on its way to Ashleworth  causing panic as it did so.
Black Headed Gulls were still evident over the floods with 120 plus on Friday, with them were small numbers of Lesser Black Backed, Common and Herring Gulls .
There were  small numbers of Stock Dove present and we pushed the species count up by one with a Greater Spotted Woodpecker ,a bit overdue if you do not mind me saying so.
That now brings us up to 38

I cannot count

Tuesday afternoon found Willow and I out on the patch and we added 2 new species for the year in the form of 2 Bullfinch and a Green Woodpecker .
Overall the area was dominated by Scandanavian Thrushes with 150 plus Redwing and 100 plus Fieldfare and keeping them company 300 plus Starling all feeding on pasture and in the hedgerows.
A couple of Buzzards and a female Kestrel flew the raptor flag and a Raven passed over. On the rough pasture 14 Meadow Pipits were seen and a flock of 14 Skylark were feeding .A Mistle Thrush passed over
So the scores on the doors for the patch is actually now 37 species so far for 2014 not as I reported the other day . 

A wet weekend

So the first weekend of January 2014 was wet with gales on the Saturday morning and as usual the species list ticks along at a good rate as I log all the usual species I usually see on my walks but do not usually mention .We added Magpie
                                                   Herring Gull
                                                   Mistle Thrush
                                                   Song Thrush
                                                   Green finch
                                                   Buzzard
                                                   Collared Dove
                                                   House Sparrow
Apart from that it was hard going but a flock of 225 plus Black Headed Gulls on the ever expanding floodwater was nice. On the pastures were 200 plus Starling , 100 plus Redwing, just 10 plus Fieldfare and a nice flock of wintering Skylarks with 28 been seen .
Sunday was a different kettle of fish , bright ,clear and a rare frost. We added a number of species to our year list with Raven
                            Wigeon with a flock of 55 plus over floodwater
                            Mute Swan with 4 flying towards the floods
                            Stock Dove .
The Raven was the first bird of the day so not a bad start, up to 4 Buzzard were around in the calmer conditions .
The 4 Mute Swans flew towards the floodwaters and a distant flock of 55 plus Wigeon  flew downriver . On the edge of the floodwater were 340 plus Black Headed Gulls were feeding ,a few Common Gulls and Lesser Black Backed and Herring Gulls were mixed in .
On the fields and in the hedges were a large flock of 360 plus Redwing , 45 plus Fieldfare and 200 plus Starling .
The first Stock Doves of the year were seen with 8 being present and the wintering flock of Skylark numbered 23 today. It was just a single Meadow Pipit that put in an appearance today and we seem to have lost our Reed Bunting .
So just 5 days into 2014 and we are already on 39 species and there are plenty of regulars that we have not seen yet.

Off to a good start

So three days into January and we are off to  fine start for the patch list for 2014.The weather has been very wet ,windy and generally crap. Friday was the first proper walk on the patch and resulted in 24 species being seen .Major highlights were a superb female Peregrine Falcon that put the frighteners on the winter Thrushes ,a flock of 70 plus Lapwing and 425 plus Black Headed Gulls on floodwater .
Redwing numbered 150 plus and Fieldfare a healthy 60 plus .Just 5 Meadow Pipits and a single Skylark today .
So the birds seen today were 1.Blue Tit
                                                2. Robin
                                                3.Dunnock
                                                4.Starling
                                                5. Crow
                                                6. Chaffinch
                                                7.Black Bird
                                                 8.Skylark
                                                 9.Jackdaw
                                                 10.Pied Wagtail
                                                  11.Redwing
                                                 12.Wood Pigeon
                                                  13. Fieldfare
                                                  14. Meadow Pipit
                                                   15. Goldfinch
                                                   16.Great Tit
                                                   17. Kestrel
                                                   18. Rook
                                                   19. Lesser Black Backed Gull
                                                   20. Common Gull
                                                   21. Mallard
                                                   22. Peregrine Falcon
                                                   23. Wren.
                                                   24. Pheasant  
Many of these birds are almost always seen but as we build up the number of species for the year I will not mention them. I plan to be out early tomorrow to add to the 2014 list.     

At the end of the year.

The last walk of 2013 was a quiet affair, mild ,breezy with a gusty southerly wind. The birds were few and far between with the only major hightlights being a flock of 225 plus Redwing and a flock of 41 Lapwing heading down river .The supporting cast of 10 Skylark, 1 Meadow Pipit and 1 Mistle Thrush was all that was on offer .

So that was 2013 my first year of keeping a record of the species seen on my little patch of no where .In the the 12 years I have lived here I have recorded 95 species so  the number of 85 species is not a bad return in  a year .Will we break the record this year ? Lets hope.
New Years day dawned with driving rain and Gales so I managed to find only 9 Species on my first walk of 2014. The first bird of 2014 was a flock of 250 plus Starling