Bit of a hangover from the birders drink the night before, bit of a light weight nowadays, so decided to walk over the Valley at dawn. Walked up a Woodcock just past St. Georges Hospital , had one on the last visit, hopefully a sign of many more to come. From here I went to Berwick to try and catch up with the Bitterns, there are now definitely 2 birds, as per last visit, no luck.
I did see a Great Crested Grebe on the main lake, having caught a large fish, was trying unsuccessfully to swallow it, it was obviously too big for its throat and it was not going to give up, see photo’s below.
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| Great Crested Grebe with large fish |
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| Down the hatch |
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| Stuck |
Plenty of Water Rail calling from the main reed bed,5 in total but the little gem was waiting at the other end. As I was scanning through a Long Tailed Tit flock, I got onto a small Crest which I managed to get 2 or 3 glimpses of in thick cover, just enough to confirm a Firecrest, couldn’t get a photo unfortunately.
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| Drake Gooseander |
From here I headed off to the Farm Trail, on the way I had a site first for me in the shape of a Drake Gooseander, only the 2nd record ever for the site after Les’s and Shauns birds earlier this year.
The game crop as usual was alive with Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers and good counts were had of both.
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| Long Tailed Tit |
Additional species seen were –
Goldcrest – 5 good to see them after last years poor showing
Cetti’s Warbler – 7 tip of the iceberg
Lesser Redpoll – 8 in Alders
Siskin – 4 flyovers
Yellowhammer - 26 In the game crop
Reed Bunting – 40 game crop
Fieldfare – 9
Redwing – 44 over in 3 flocks
Red Legged Partridge – 1 Glades
Sparrowhawk – 2 overhead
Green Woodpecker – 3 ground feeding
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| Little Grebe |
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