The second visit of the year commenced at 08.00, I left a little later this morning so as to give the birds a chance to get out and about! I first paid a visit to the lake area, which still had a thin covering of ice over it, so it was devoid of ducks. The bankside vegetation had 4 BULLFINCH in it, and further in the woody area a COAL TIT was in song - signs of spring ? The wet woods held a new species for the year, when 2 TEAL (47) were heard, also heard here, was a MARSH TIT, and a little further on I came across a party of 5 GOLDCREST, but there wasn't a Firecrest amongst them - pity! I also met my friend David, who had come up to get a few birds for his year list, as we headed over to the farmland part of the walk ,I recorded the years first FIELDFARE (48).the first bird david wanted to see was was the BARN OWL, it sat in the shack and allowed us good views of it, whilst we watched, 2 LESSER REDPOLL (49) alighted in the hedgerow in front of us, a good one for my year list, this species has been missed in previous years. At Migrant alley it all seemed quiet at first, but it wasn't long before a stream of BLACK HEADED GULLS came into the sheep pasture, followed by Small groups of LAPWING, which built up into a flock of 180 birds, quite a spectacle as they all flew up into the sunshine. One COMMON GULL (50) flew over, as did a few HERRING GULL, and a solitary SKYLARK (51) . After walking round the college grounds, and picking up REDWING and the other common thrushes, we headed back out to Migrant Alley to scan the Lapwing flock in the hope of picking up a Golden Plover amongst them, but we failed, However, after seeing all the birds in the fields go up in panic, we scanned the sky for a raptor, which was found in the form of the local PEREGRINE (52), it perched up on the Tower at hadlow , before flying off SW. My friend got a couple of nice birds for his year list, and saw the MARSH TIT at my garden feeeders, and I added 6 birds to my year list, so a good day overall.

My mate David lent me a 500mm lens, so I tried it out on some garden birds,

A couple of GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS eyed each other up !

Then settled down to feed.

Below is one of the GOLDFINCH'S at the sunflower hearts

I gave the new year celebrations a miss, and was in bed and asleep by 11:00, I wanted to be up early for the 1st birding day of the new year, anyway, I think I did enough celebrating in my younger years to last a lifetime!
As usually happens on the new years day walk round, my excitement gets rapidly down toned! I was out at 07:30, and was actually waiting for the birds to get up! The first bird to do so was a BLACKBIRD, alarm calling, then a ROBIN, then a WOODPIGEON..........and the list of common birds got longer. I made sure I was over in the tree nursery to see the LINNETS leave their roost, as once they have left, they don't hang about on my patch, whilst I was there I also wanted to get the BARN OWL down on the list, fortunatley it was at home. Over at Migrant alley I picked up LAPWING, MEADOW PIPIT, and KESTREL, a few moments later a SPARROWHAWK came over, and seemed to be in it's display flight.
At the college stream 30 SISKIN were feeding in the alders, with the usual GOLDFINCH'S and in the college grounds, LONG TAILED TIT, BULLFINCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and MISTLE THRUSH took the list into the high 30's.
Over at the lake area the ice still hadn't completely thawed and little was seen, apart from MALLARDS and MOORHENS, although a GREY HERON flew over. If I'm to make an early impression on the record January list of 62, set last year, I'm going to need the lake defrosted!
I picked up TREECREEPER in the wet woods, and the wild bird crop at the west end of Ashes lane gave me a REED BUNTING, a good species to get early on, last year I got this species on new years day, and didn't see another until September!
So I ended my walk on 44 species, and picked up a further 2 at my garden feeders, COAL TIT and MARSH TIT. The latter is a good one for my list, as the two birds on my patch will leave in the spring to breed, and there is no gaurantee that they will return next Autumn.
My target this year ? Well, it is of course to beat the 106 set last year! However I think I'll do well if I can reach the 100 mark, which seems more realistic!
Sorry no pics today - the weather was cold and grey, and few photo chances came my way.