Welney WWT - 29.12.11

The Peregrine and the Greenland Goose.

As i'm not back at work untill the 3rd Jan I decided to make the most of my free time and head of to Welney in the hope of adding another species to my UK list (sub-species anyway). On arrival it was clear to see it was going to be a windy day! I had a look from the hides and one of the first birds I came across was a Peregrine sat on the grass. Eventually I managed to pick out the flock of geese which included Canada, Greylag, 4 Barnacle, 1 Pink-Footed and 7 Eurasian White-Fronted Geese and there in with them was my first ever GREENLAND WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. As you can see from my photo it was annoyingly distant and with the wind blowing it wasn't exactly perfect for a good pic!

Catch Up

Well its been 16 days since my last update for which I apologise. The only birds of note before I broke up from work were a Lesser Redpoll and 3 Skylarks that were forced down by a snow shower.

Xmas Comes Early - 13.12.11

The cracking little Snow Bunting.

I've not updated this blog for a while as the park was only throwing up the same old stuff with 2 Little Egrets, Kingfisher and Siskins being of any note. Though the first 3 days of last week did produce large numbers of Woodpigeons in the mornings all flying North with a couple of groups number around 100 birds.

But yesterday news came onto my pager of a potential Herts tick up at Tring. With this news I luckily got a half day and left work! I arrived at Startops End Reservoir and it started to rain. I climbed the steps from the lay by and met Steve Blake and his dog. He told me the bird was just down infront of us but could we find it? No! Had I missed it by 2 minutes? No! hankfully I found the bird again and thee feeding amongst the rocky shoreline was my first Herts Snow Bunting. A lovely 1st winter male ignored the strong cold wind and rain and at times showed down to 20-30 feet. I managed the 3 shots above but then my camera battery died! I was soaking wet by this stage so left happily around 12.15pm. Also present were a pair of Red-Crested Pochard and a Red Kite.

Cassiobury Park - 5.12.11

A very cold and windy day only produced 7 Fieldfare, a few Siskin and at least 1 Lesser Redpoll.

Rainham Marshes - 3.12.11

A few hours spent walking around the reserve produced lots of Wigeon and Teal, at least 1 Little Egret and 2 Peregrines over the car park as we arrived. It was a tad too windy for the Bearded Tits to show but it was a good day all round.

Cassiobury Park - 1.12.11

Well December is here at last and it produced some white stuff already. Not snow but 2 Little Egrets over the meadow at 8.45am! A Kingfisher was on the river by the Gade Avenue entrance just before 11am. A Meadow Pipit was a surprise as it flew over the toilet block.