A trip down south

As my birder's wife was away for the weekend I decided to go and visit my sister down in Hampshire.  It is always worth visiting her, not only to catch up but also to sample the New Forest specialities.

Spoonbills roosting

So, I decided to take the day off work on Friday and arrived in Hampshire at about 8:00am and carried on through to Dorset to Purbeck.  My main aim was to see if I could find the Surf Scoter in Poole Harbour.  However, after looking from several vantage points I could not find anything out on the water, although I was hindered by the appalling conditions.  I decided to make my way to Arne Rspb instead which was nearby to at least see some interesting species like Spoonbill and Dartford Warbler.  For the morning I headed to the most northern hide and was rewarded with views of 16 Spoonbill, 1 Avocet, about 15 Roe Deer and two Raven. After a brief lunch at my car I then headed south to the heath and after a walk around, soon heard the alarm call of a Dartford Warbler and after a few minutes caught a quick glimpse of the bird as it perched on top of a piece of gorse before disappearing out of sight.  The way back to the car gave me views of the resident Sika Deer.

I then decided to make my way back to my sister's house via a couple of stops.  The first stop was Blackwater Arboretum to look for Hawfinches and as I walked up the path I immediately saw 3 fly over, followed by 5 Common Crossbills and after  quick search found 2 more Hawfinches calling from the top of some trees.  The second stop was Hawkhill Inclosure which has usually been good in the past, but due to the conditions, it was devoid of birds, so I headed back for warmth and to get dry.

The following morning I decided to head out for some local birding nearby to where my sister lives and chanced upon some friendly birders, one who is the assistant county recorder for Hampshire.  Birds of note for that walk were a couple of Pintail and my first Cetti's Warbler for the year. The rest of the day was devoted to shopping near Portsmouth and I resisted the temptation of going for the overwintering Ring Billed Gull at Gosport.  In the afternoon I then headed out for some more local birding and watched Cormorants come into to roost on the local lakes.

Decisions

In this week of non birding, I have been thinking about how I want to bird this year.

I have already made the choice that I will not actively pursue a year list.  This decision was made as I have no trips to the Scillies or Shetlands booked (yet!!).  Last year I became a bit too obsessive and I also feel that the next target would have to be 300 if I was to do a year list, which would probably leave me with a not so understanding birder's wife (or it may not leave with a birder's wife at all).

My birder's wife has already made the choice that she will have her own very casual year list and I will join her in this and may then just only try for new species this year, although that alone is a bit hollow and non fulfilling.

I have thought about signing up and registering with the patch birding initiative but for one reason or another have decided not to and am reporting my sightings through Birdtrack anyway.

So, after much umming and ahhing I have decided to do the following:-

1/ I find the whole idea of patch birding and self finding to be a very encouraging thing and intend to try and bird within walking distance of my home on a more frequent basis this year.
2/  I intend to find my own patch and work it as often as possible (I am going for an investigative trip this weekend).
3/  I intend to build on my life list and twitch just new birds.
4/  For every twitch or birding trip that I make which is over 10 miles from my house, I in turn will do an extra visit to my surrounding area or chosen patch.

Onwards and upwards.........

Great Grey Shrike and Brambling added to my Birders Wife's year list

As we were visiting friends in Kidderminster today, I took the opportunity to visit Hopwood again (being just a mile off the motorway) to show my Birders Wife the Great Grey Shrike.  The bird was showing as we arrived but was very distant and therefore we did not stay long and instead decided to head for the Lickey Hills to find the flock of Bramblings currently residing there.  The flock had been reported as not being that far into the wood, which was fortunate as we were not dressed for birding and we soon found them about 50m from the road (with help from a friendly birder who gave us directions) - Mission accomplished and we headed onto Kidderminster for Sunday lunch.

Hampton Wood

Another day off and I took a stroll round Hampton Wood.  There was not really much around at all.  The most activity was around the feeders with the Nuthatch showing nicely but unfortunately no showing of any Marsh Tits.

Nuthatch

New Year - New List mmmm!!!

Lesser Redpoll

I decided to take today and tomorrow off work and used the fine day as an opportunity to go and look for the debated Arctic/Mealy Redpoll which has been occupying a bean field in Worcestershire.

Despite being a fine day, it was bitterly cold in the Worcestershire countryside.  The overgrown edge of the field was attracting a lot of activity, large mixed finch flocks of about 50+ but they were constantly on the move flitting from the crop to the golf course on the otherside of the road and it was extremely hard to pin down any birds.  I finally managed good views of a few Mealy Redpolls amongst the Lessers Redpolls and other birds within the flock were the odd Greenfinch with many Goldfinches.

Lesser Redpoll

After about two hours of waiting around, there was just me and another birder left and as I prepared to depart also, a whitish Redpoll alighted in a tree above us on its own and then promptly flew into the crop field and disappeared.  It could have been the Arctic Redpoll but the view was to brief to say for sure.  As my feet were about to turn into blocks of ice, I decided to drive home, stopping by Hopwood for the Great Grey Shrike who eventually appeared after an hour and delighted the patient crowd.

Goldfinch

A frustrating day's birding with lots of hanging around but it was nice to be outside.