LOCAL BIRDING 2015 - JANUARY.
Over the last two or three years I've really been neglecting my home patch in favour of coastal birding, twitching etc but this year I've decided its time for a resurgence of birding in my local area. The years 2006-2011 were a very productive time, and on local terms it was a real purple patch. My birding mate Matthew was living here and between us we found some great quality birds including Black-throated Diver, Great Grey Shrike, Iceland Gull, Quail and a certain Barn Owl!! It is my hope this year to recapture some of that magic from this period but it will be hard work and common place birds on and around the coast like Wheatear, Green Sandpiper and Red Kite will be good finds here. However, I am up for the challenge and with a minimum personal requirement of one trip out every week I may even come across something rarer with luck.
I began the birding year on 6th Jan at Saxlingham Thorpe where there was a very nice Grey Wagtail at the sewage works. Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers called and a small flock of Fieldfare and Redwings fed in the adjacent field.
A couple of Bullfinches called from the Foxhole area and a Mistle Thrush sang from a telegraph wire. A Woodcock flushed from a rough common was very pleasing as was a lovely bright Goldcrest hanging from a dormant hawthorn looking like a Christmas bauble not yet taken down. A single Little Owl began calling which sparked up two more pairs either side of me and lastly a Common Buzzard circled over the wood.
On 10th I went along the Tas Valley at Forncett quite late in the day and found a small Yellowhammer roost of about 15 birds. Three more Common Buzzards were still on the wing in the setting sunlight and a Little Egret flew along the valley. A small group of 13 Golden Plovers flew east and a Barn Owl was hunting in the field next to my parked car.
On 20th I went to Great Moulton. It was the only day available to me that week. The weather was poor and consequently the birding was hard work. Several Bullfinches were seen though and my first local Treecreeper of the year was noted.
If I thought that was hard, a trip out to Fritton Common on 26th was even harder, in what was virtually a bird-free afternoon with just a single Meadow Pipit, Treecreeper and 17 Golden Plovers over being the only noteworthy birds.
Back to better form on 30th in the Tasburgh / Low Tharston area with my first Nuthatch and Marsh Tits of the year and a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming. A pair of Stock Doves displayed despite quite cold frosty conditions and the best observation of the month was of a Fox out in broad daylight stealthily hunting and completely oblivious to me. It has been a good month for Little Egrets locally with seven or eight widespread birds which are all almost certainly different individuals.
Species - 48.
Steve.
