Grabbed a Wheatear and a couple of groups of Sand Martin yesterday during a jolly around the old stomping ground of West Berkshire, taking my #My200Birdyear to 126...
Today we took a trip down to the coast to hopefully grab a couple of decent birds that were there, one in particular before it moved on.. Garganey.
It was a last minute trip, the birds were listed early doors and we had a weekend free of plans.
We didn't go the coast yesterday as both me and Rachel Irving (old BBOWT colleague) wanted to hit a few BBOWT sites. We also decided that the coast would be nasty due to the wind.
The Saturday trip was hard enough. Our eyes were constantly watering! but throwing caution to the wind (sorry) I decided to drag my Rachael down to the seaside to see what we could see on a gloomy windy Sunday in March. Perfect British beach weather !?!
Asking the first couple we met when we got down there, if they had seen the garganey, my heart sunk a little when the answer came back that they hadn't. This bird was always going to be moving through, but please, not that soon!
A tailwind assisted walk along the sea front, it wasn't long before we were walking past Butt's Lagoon, picking up a Greenshank (127) and on to Oxey, (where the bird was listed at 6:20 this morning). A little 'whoop' out loud when I spotted it out on the lagoon, in the company of a mallard and some wigeon. A good tick! (128 on My200BirdYear)
Spot the Garganey
All cyclists know that tailwinds never last for ever, and it was time to walk back in to the wind and try and find the spoonbill that were somewhere in the direction of Fishtail Lagoon. Lots of Turnstone along the sea wall, Brent Geese out to sea, plenty of Pintail dotted about, Wigeon and Teal still in good numbers as well. Does this mean that Winter isn't done with us yet? Isn't that the 'old wives tale' about Blackthorn? which is in flower now..
Fishtail had no Spoonbill..
But Keyhaven did :o) In the distance, asleep. Of course. (129)
A guided walk of green anoraks were stood watching Fishtail, their attention was directed to something that turned out to be four Spotted Redshank, (130) Very busily going about their way.
A Ruff (131) was also at the back of the lagoon. I got a picture of that, but the wind was so strong that it wasn't really a 'picture' kind of day, my lens acting like a sail. It was hard to get any kind of distance shots today, but five new year ticks meant it was a very productive trip. Home by 1:45 p.m. as well. Perfect.
So since the last blog update... I've managed to get Waxwing in Bracknell, Bewicks, Barnacle & White Fronted Geese at Slimbridge, Water Pipit in Alresford to name a few.
I'm keeping a tab here which will fill in all the missing numbers.
Oh, and the hedgehogs in the garden have woken up... more soon.
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