We were looking forward to the new year so we could get out & do some sort of birding. Being in tier 2 let us go a few miles from home, but on the first day of the year, we decided to stay local and head over to Jimmy's old patch at Fisher's Green in the Lee Valley Park. Our normal destination would have been Norfolk or Kent.
But we still had a nice morning & got ourselves 61-year ticks, well down on our normal total of around 90 or so but still, more than we expected. The highlight of the day was a Cattle Egret at Hallmarsh scrape, & we found several White-fronted Geese that was a good find for here, up by the farm. A walk around Hooks Marsh & Seventy Acre lake got us a Redhead Smew & we ended up with a fair first day total.
On day 2 it,s a quick run over to KGV Reservoir. Goosander, Goldeneye,2 Drake Scaup were soon seen but the real bonus came when we found 2 Black Redstart on the fence over the far side by the causeway.
A ride up to Epping Forest to Strawberry Hill pond gives us 2 more ticks with a few Mandarin Ducks & a couple of Nuthatches.
Next up it's a trip to Rainham Marshes. we scan from the Serin mound & see some Barnacle Geese a single Ruff, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew, Shelduck & several Avocet on Aveley Bay.
A walk along the riverbank gets us Water & Rock Pipit also Snipe & Pintail to end a nice visit.
Now we get put into lockdown tier 4 so just really local birding. A visit to Eagle pond gets us the long-staying Caspian Gull, which was seen within minutes of arrival as we crossed the road. Finding the Gull so quick we decided to pop round the corner to Wanstead Flats for the reported Med Gull & found the first winter gull on Jubilee pond after scanning through a lot of Black-headed Gulls on the pond. Across the road is centre drive car park and it's a short walk to find the Little Owl sitting out in the morning sunshine.
On another visit to the Lee Valley, a nice Short-eared Owl is seen and it gives great views.
After no birding for many days, we get a tip that a Ring-necked Duck was over Lee Valley, so over we go & find the female Ring-neck Duck on the fishing lake, the good thing about this find is that we have seen many males but only one other female, so a good tick for us both.
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| Black Redstart |
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| Brian,s photo of the Short-eared Owl |
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| Wanstead Little Owl |
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| First-year Med Gull at Jubilee pond |
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| Caspian Gull at Eagle Pond |
