Sunday 1 January 2017

The first full patch walk of the new year is always eagerly anticipated, trying to get as many of those common and regular species on the year / months list as possible........this is how I got on this new years day, the species are listed in order of appearance.....

leaving the house as it was just getting light ( not that it got much lighter during the 4 hour visit!), the first bird on the year list was a BLACKBIRD, closely followed by BLUE TIT and a SONGTHRUSH which sang in the distance. JACKDAW, STARLING, MAGPIE, HOUSE SPARROW and COLLARED DOVE were all found as I walked along Ashes Lane towards the Small Holding area, where GREAT TIT, DUNNOCK, WOODPIGEON, ROBIN, WREN, CHAFFINCH and CARRION CROW were all recorded.

Entering the Wet Woods a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was added to the days list, but no other new species were seen there, I had to wait until reaching the Scrubby Woods to add the next few species, which were; GOLDCREST, MISTLETHRUSH, GREEN WOODPECKER, a TREECREEPER in full song, GOLDFINCH, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, LONG TAILED TIT, COAL TIT, JAY and a small group of flyover SISKIN. The adjacent lakes were, as ever, pretty dead, just MALLARD and MOORHEN were seen there.

The next species for the years list were found as I crossed the Ashes Lane Fields, here there were a good number of REDWING and FIELDFARE on the sheep pasture, maybe a hundred all in all, plus there were a few MEADOW PIPITS around.

Rain started to fall as I walked the Greenhouse grounds, making for an even more gloomy morning, I found PIED WAGTAIL for the years list, plus the male KESTREL that was perched up on one of the greenhouses, but nothing else was found that hadn't already been recorded.

A circuit of Migrant Alley, then a trundle across the fields to high House Lane and a look over Bustard Hill, proved very disappointing, Just BLACK HEADED GULL, HERRING GULL and ROOK were found, making for a miserly 37 species to kick off the year, the worst tally for a new years day walk on record! I dont like to have to keep saying it was the worst tally for this and the worse tally for that, but they are the facts, I cam only report what I find!

I did at least add GREENFINCH for the day, when two turned up at my garden feeders this afternoon, they are alarmingly scarce out on the farmland now, 17 other species also used my garden habitat today, which were ; GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, COAL TIT, HOUSE SPARROW, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, STARLING, COLLARED DOVE, WOODPIGEON, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, NUTHATCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, JACKDAW and MAGPIE.

So, in all, 38 species to kick off the January list, will I get anywhere near the record January species tally of 68, which was recorded in 2009, 2011 and again in 2013 ?


9 comments:

Derek Faulkner said...

Many of us are having similar low bird number patrols Warren, a mild, dry winter doesn't help. Try looking for good numbers of wetland birds on a "wet" marsh that has no more water on it than last summer, that's the Swale NNR at the moment.

Warren Baker said...

Derek,
It doesn't give one much incentive to ''get out there'' there does it!!

Jason K said...

Hello Warren. Long time no speak, hope you had a good New Year. Good to see you are still working Pittswood.

I have finally made a return to blogging with a new patch (about 3 miles from Shenstone. You can check it out if you are interested at:

http://hartleburycommon.blogspot.co.uk

Cheers Jason

Simian said...

Warren....44 at Whetsted....though nice to get Goldeneye and Barn Owl this early...hoping to break the hundred there this year....
As for April...yep...a three month snooze and all will be well...if only I had got Chiff yesterday...!
Bird On!

Marc Heath said...

Good to see you doing the patch again Warren. Sure you will turn up some good birds this year.

Marc Heath said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Simian said...

Oh yes...my garden...very poor for so long now...weeks...apart from the initial 9 Blackbirds, which visited over a couple of weeks at the first thrush influx...its been dead....acouple of Goldfinch for a few days....virtually nothing on the feeders, I've re filled once! Once!!! Had to throw some away to do that! The used to be regular Coal Tit I've seen once, haven't heard or seen Nuthatch here for ages, another regular gone?! Very few Tits or finches...but as I've said before, it was a really bad moth 2016 too....even the cold weather has brought nothing in...

Ken. said...

Warren.
At least you managed to clocked up a good number of passerines. Flip it on it's head, it could have been worse.It is a strange time for birds, but January is a long month things can only get better...he says.

Stephen Mills said...

Keep going Warren! I'm sure you'll turn something up.
I've got the same problem with habitat loss and though it's disheartening I'll keep trudging round the patch.