Sunday 16 December 2012

After yesterdays pretty poor full patch walk, I found it difficult to to get enthused about this mornings, but as I did say yesterday, ''its always worth getting out, as you don't know what may turn up' ...........

Things started well, with the first December LINNETS (61) being seen, when 4 flew from the Tree Nursery very early on. A MISTLETHRUSH was heard singing as I approached the Wet Woods, and above me SISKIN, FIELDFARE, REDWING, MEADOW PIPIT, HERRING GULL and BLACK HEADED GULL were all seen/heard. In the Wet Woods yesterdays feeding flock was still evident, but without any Long Tailed Tits, I saw 2 TREECREEPERS, 2 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, 4 GOLDCREST a NUTHATCH, and a few GREAT and BLUE TITS.

Moving on to the lakes I was pleased to first of all find 8 CANADA GEESE (62) for the months list, but they immediately took a back seat when I spied no fewer than 5 female GOOSANDER (63) also there, a brilliant patch record. Luckily I had brought my camera along, but it was still almost dark, so I only got a few distant record shots of them  :-)
5 Goosander, Wow!
I watched them fishing for ten minutes, before something spooked them
Four MALLARD dropped in whilst I watched the Goosanders, plus a SPARROWHAWK went zooming past me, BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, JAY, PHEASANT, COLLARED DOVE, and the MARSH TIT also went on my list as I stood and enjoyed the Goosander.

Things slowed down as I walked the rest of my patch, both the KESTRELS were hunting around the Greenhouse Grounds, and a low flying BUZZARD was also seen here. The College Grounds provided the mornings list with the likes of PIED WAGTAIL, GREENFINCH, HOUSE SPARROW,  and GOLDFINCH, easy to miss these species on other parts of my patch.

So in the end it was well worth dragging myself from a warm bed and get out into the mud and dark, the days list ended on a good total of 43 species, and those 3 new species seen this morning moves the months list on to 63, the fourth best December on record  :-)
Kestrel on the Greenhouse roof

11 comments:

ShySongbird said...

Very well done with the five Goosander Warren, excellent!! :-) Lovely Kestrel photo too.

Lovely sunny day here but things to do at home prevented an outing with the camera :-(

Pete Woodruff said...

Five patch record Goosanders, excellent.

Don't like to hear you using language like 'found it difficult to get enthused' Warren.

Marc Heath said...

Excellent records Warren and a nicely captured Kestrel as well.

Warren Baker said...

Songbird,
Lots to do here too, its a hard task to get everything done when the days are this short, only another week and the evenings get start to get lighter again :-)

Warren Baker said...

Pete,
Sorry for the slip up in enthusiasm, wont happen again...........

Warren Baker said...

Cheers Marc,
I see the Kestrels most days, but they rarely offer themselves up for a photo!

Mark said...

Good Goosander record indeed !

Anonymous said...

Well done with the Goosanders Warren.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Well done with the redheads .
Smew next ?

Alan Pavey said...

Brilliant mate, really good birds to have on your local patch down here and glad you had your camera!

Adam said...

nice kestrel