Pitstone Hill & Stocker's Lake.

With limited time again we decide to head to Pitstone Hill in Buckinghamshire. The aim is to try for the long staying Ring Ouzel.We find the car park & as soon as we get out of the car we find the Ouzel perched on a small tree yards from the car park,so a good year tick but we still spend over 2 hours watching the bird flying off & returning again soon after. Nice to spend time with Matt M on his local patch who gave us info on a couple of other places that we wanted to head too.
Off now to Stockers Lake Rickmansworth, the lake is the furthest away but not a bad walk.
The lake is scanned & we find just one Male Red-crested Pochard over the far side of the lake,that was our target so it's a year tick & we find that we are not far from Cassiobury Park so off we go to find ourselves a Little Owl.
It did not take long before we find the Owl in a large tree only yards from the car park.
A small time spent with the bird but before we leave it was nice to get a family onto the Owl as they had never seen an Owl before so nice.
The last place to visit as we head for home is Tyttenhanger G P. We know that there are Tree Sparrows here & we need them for a year tick after not seeing any at our usual spot at Dungeness a few days ago.
This turns out to be a long hard walk across some fields that were water logged in places.We find the feeders behind the builders yard & it's not long before a flock of ten or so fly out of the bushes & head away from us & we have to wait a while before a single bird lands onto the feeder in front of us.
We need to head home now as we are already a bit later than I should have been.

The Iceland Gull from last week.

A nice morning gets us 4 ticks each & that takes my year list to 164.

Little Owl

Pitstone Ouzel

Valentine's Park Turtle Dove.

We take a quick local visit to Ilford's Valentine's Park arriving around 8 o'clock & heading down to the pond where the Turtle Dove had been seen on Sunday.
A flock of Collared Dove fly up & away over the trees & we suspect the Turtle Dove had gone with them, we are joined by a few birders & walk the park for 3 hours before the Doves start to drop back onto the Island in the middle of the pond.
After a short wait Jimmy spots the target bird on the waters edge where it hung about for 5 minutes before flying into the middle of the Island & was lost to sight for the remainder of the time we spent here.Only 5 miles to drive home with another unexpected year tick.

The Turtle Dove

Bittern ( Titchwell) plus Waxwing ( Sculthorpe Moor )

On the way up to Sculthorpe Moor this morning we pop in for a another quick look for any sighting of Golden Pheasant,no sign again today.Not to long looking before it's on to the Waxwing at Sculthorpe Moor.
The bird can be seen from the car park but we pay the £5 donation & after spending a short time with the Waxwing we walk the reserve & find loads of Bullfinch from a couple of hides.
At Tower hide we get our first Bramling of the year when 2 birds drop onto the feeding tray just outside the right hand side of the hide along with Marsh Tit,Coal Tit, Longtail Tit & Nuthatch, Its nice to just sit here in the peace and quiet watching these fabulous little birds going about their daily life.
A great time spent here before it's off to Titchwell where after not finding the Woodcock on Meadow trail we walk up the central path & a Bittern has just dropped into the reeds only yards from the path.
An hour spent as it kept teasing us showing & looking like it was coming right into the open before moving back into the reeds but a few good looks & it gets us another year tick.
Before heading off we have one more look for the Woodcock,once again no sign but our first Chiffchaff is ticked.
Willow Tit is ticked as we pay a visit to Cockley Cley after we do a small detour on the way home I  missed seeing any Willow Tits here last year so a real bonus when we see a few on the feeding tray & also get to hear them to confirm that we have seen the right bird.
A dull sort of a day but with 6 new year ticks we had a nice day.

Bramling

Just some off the Bullfinches

The Sculthorpe Waxwing

Walthamstow Wetlands.

We only have a short amount of time this morning, so a Black Redstart is at Forest Road & that is only 20 minutes away from home without heavy work traffic.
We have to renew our entry permits for the year & once that is done we set about looking for a couple of reported Firecrests seen just past the permit hut.
An hour later still no sign of them so a walk over Forest Rd & head  off to Lockwood Res for the Black Redstart. As we approach the south end towers the bird is spotted sitting on a red buoy & then gives great views as it sits on top of the tower & was happy just sitting there until a water board worker flushed it away & as other birders turned up to get a view of the bird it never came back while we where here.
Nice to meet up with Dominic M, Dave B, & local birder Lol, & have a nice catch up as we walk back over the rd & head to the reeds behind the Engine room & get nice views of a couple of Bearded Tits. It's time for us to head home but as we go we walk the river boardwalk & get lucky as Brian picks out a single Firecrest before it flies up river & out of sight.
A quick visit gets us 3 year ticks when a Sparrowhawk flies across the river Jimmy & I needed that for a tick & with permits renewed an nice people to walk with well worth the visit.

Bearded Tits

Brian's photo of the Black Redstart.

First visit of the year to Dungeness & Rainham Marshes.

On Friday we head off for our first visit of the year to Rainham Marsh & pick up a few year ticks.
Walking along the foreshore of the Thames away from the stone barges the first tick is Water Pipit quickly followed by Rock Pipit,next up a Yellow -legged Gull adds to the list. The boys find 5 Snipe but I had to wait to tick just one when we scanned from the foreshore over the pools on the reserve.
A couple of Ruff add to the year ticks,so a very good visit & only 1/2 an hour from home.
On Saturday it's off to look for Red-necked Grebe that has been seen on Alpha Pool at Cliffe.
On a arrival we find that it's very very muddy as we struggle to get down to the Pool.Once we get in a position to scope the pool we find the Red-necked Grebe at one end of the pool & a bonus when we find a Black-necked Grebe at the other end of the pool so well worth fighting the mud to find them. Lots of Little Grebe all over the pool along with Great-creasted are nice. A Green Woodpecker gives Jimmy & myself another year tick. We have to be home early so just a very quick visit that still gets us 3 nice ticks.
Sunday sees us set off at 6 am & arrive at Dungeness by 8 am for the first visit of the year.
First up we head up to the beach & it's really cold, so after ticking our first Gannet & Razorbill we get ourselves back to the car & think we will easily tick Tree Sparrow by the entrance gate that we do every year but to our surprise we find the cupboard bare,plenty of Greenfinch & Tits on the feeders but whats happened to the Tree Sparrows.
A quick look at the mound gets us Cetti's Warbler & Bearded Tit to keep the ticks rolling.So a good 4 ticks. Off now for Purple sandpiper at Hythe, after parking up we find it's a longer walk as we find we need to be at the 2nd off the Groynes & that is  a fair walk along the sea front.The bonus is when we reach the right place we spot 2 Purple Sandpipers within minutes, that's good as we want to head off to Chatham Marina on the way home.

We arrive at the Marina & have to look for pool 2 as some Shag had been reported yesterday. it's an easy tick when we see 2 at different sides of the pool. Another 6 ticks added today pushes the year total up to 149 for me.

Hythe where we got the Sandpipers

Rainham's Stone Barges

One off the Shags at Chatham Marina

Hawfinch + at Lynford Arboretum.

Not a long trip today, Lynford is just over an hour away from home.We park up in the Arboretum car park at first light & after a quick look at the feeders we find nothing is awake yet so head down to the bridge. A small flock of Siskin followed by a single Greenfinch give us our first ticks of the day.
A look over the Paddocks gets us a few Hawfinch 5 in total seen but they might have been the same bird returning once or twice.
On the bridge many Coal Tit & Marsh Tit along with a few Nuthatch are seen for year ticks.
Walking down to the other bridge we all tick Mistle thrush in the Paddock & Jimmy gets a needed Song thrush tick. At the bridge we find more Coal,Marsh & a flock of Long-tailed Tits gives Brian a tick.
Another look at the feeders by the entrance as we head for the car gets us an unexpected tick as a single Yellow Hammer is seen feeding on the ground by the empty pool.We head off in search of more birds but after we get lucky when we spot a Goshawk very low over the trees when we pull off the road to watch it.The rest of the time we had left before heading home produces no more ticks so it's a fairly short day for us,but with 9 year ticks a very pleasant trip.
135 year ticks is not a bad start to the year.

Marsh Tit

One of the many Nuthatch

Richard's Pipit.( Boy what a walk )

A quick tick not far from home when we visit the Eagle Pond in Snarsbrook & find the Caspian Gull after about 5 minutes,the bird has been here for a while now,so it was time we paid a visit.
We have not planned anything for today apart from the Caspian but we have the bug so a quick decision gets us heading off to Kent in search of the Richard's Pipit.
Over the water onto the A2 & after running around a bit we find Clinch St, in High Halstow  it's a very narrow lane with little parking,but we pull off the road & get the only bit of room available down by the gates.
Now just the longest walk I have ever done while out birding it's nasty. but off we go heading for Egypt Bay & that's only half of the way, we have to get our self's over six stiles & that turns out not to be to easy for me it feels like we are never getting any closer to the bird.
It takes us nearly an hour to get down too the second sea wall where we had been told the Pipit had just been seen by Barry W, he was the only person on site the whole of the time we are here.
After we find the area the Richard's has been seen we have to walk the wall a few times before the Pipit gives a brief flight view.
Over the next hour we keep getting little views of the bird in flight before finely it lands close enough for a few photos.
On the way back we get a couple of Reed Bunting's for a year tick & just before we reach the car a Barn Owl flies across the field for Jimmy & I to tick our first one of the new year.So another 4 year ticks helps to ease the old legs. 120 year ticks in a few days & some good ones on the list.

Thank God we never dipped this one.

The Richard's Pipit.