Farnboro John
Well-known member
Happy New Year all!
I apologise for the late start this year, my focus was on getting organised for yesterday with Clare and Steve, and thanks to that and stunning weather - I would have described it as a balmy late September day, which ought to be impossible on 1 January - we had a really great day out.
My first mammal of the year was a Wood Mouse caught in the spotlight while I was searching for ducks or Moorhens along the brook to kick the year off straight after midnight.
The next was a Red Fox crossing an Aldershot road just after I picked Clare up at 0545 (I had been to sleep between the two sightings, honest) and then a succession of Rabbits dicing with death around the wheels of my moving car near Odiham as dawn broke.
First one, then a field with eight Roe Deer followed by another with two (and the day book-ended by a buck in velvet outside North Hide at Blashford's Ivy Lake) provided ungulate interest which was followed up by four Fallow Deer pacing quietly through Mark Ash Wood in the New Forest. It was just after this that Grey Squirrels came out with their tails up to join the list.
The last accession of 1 January to 2019's mammal list was a Common Seal bobbing in the sea off Pennington Marshes, though the last individual of the day was Big Whitey who was sitting on the path waiting to be fed when Marion opened the door preparatory to her last smoke of the day just before 2200.
We had a big bunch of birds too - 106 spp in fact, listed in the Birdforum joint list up in Birds and Birding. Hopefully the year will continue as well!
I look forward to seeing everyone else's accounts, anecdotes, directions and musings as we go along. All welcome!
John
I apologise for the late start this year, my focus was on getting organised for yesterday with Clare and Steve, and thanks to that and stunning weather - I would have described it as a balmy late September day, which ought to be impossible on 1 January - we had a really great day out.
My first mammal of the year was a Wood Mouse caught in the spotlight while I was searching for ducks or Moorhens along the brook to kick the year off straight after midnight.
The next was a Red Fox crossing an Aldershot road just after I picked Clare up at 0545 (I had been to sleep between the two sightings, honest) and then a succession of Rabbits dicing with death around the wheels of my moving car near Odiham as dawn broke.
First one, then a field with eight Roe Deer followed by another with two (and the day book-ended by a buck in velvet outside North Hide at Blashford's Ivy Lake) provided ungulate interest which was followed up by four Fallow Deer pacing quietly through Mark Ash Wood in the New Forest. It was just after this that Grey Squirrels came out with their tails up to join the list.
The last accession of 1 January to 2019's mammal list was a Common Seal bobbing in the sea off Pennington Marshes, though the last individual of the day was Big Whitey who was sitting on the path waiting to be fed when Marion opened the door preparatory to her last smoke of the day just before 2200.
We had a big bunch of birds too - 106 spp in fact, listed in the Birdforum joint list up in Birds and Birding. Hopefully the year will continue as well!
I look forward to seeing everyone else's accounts, anecdotes, directions and musings as we go along. All welcome!
John
