Farnboro John
Well-known member
Happy New Year everybody!
I hope not everyone began their year trying to throw off a cold, as I did, but I didn't let it stop me getting into the field. I did revert to a heavier emphasis on birding for the first couple of days, I'm not happy till I'm 100-up, but I still encountered a few mammals along the way.
After a day locally that netted 79 birds including Jack Snipe, Woodcock and Red-crested Pochard, I had a lie-in on 2nd then zipped to Pagham where wildfowl and shorebirds along with 2 Bitterns and a Bearded Tit by the North Wall dragged me up to 98. On 3rd I opened the door to find 20 Waxwings in the tree opposite, and a hooting Tawny Owl brought up the hundred that evening.
On the first the Red Foxes were vocal from about 0300. Maz got up early so Tansy wouldn't dawdle on her morning walk in the dark: we were treated to one fox trotting past us and provoking a chase from the dog (who I just caught as she gathered speed in her chariot) then down by the brook another actually growled at us and held its ground, leading the three of us to retreat in confusion. I couldn't see due to the dark and the steep bank it was looking over, but I suspect it had just acquired a fat Mallard and wasn't going to give it up easily. Being driven off by a fox is a new experience for me.
After my Jack Snipe dawn I worked round the Greywell fields and was very lucky to see a Stoat performing the "dance of death" at the far side of a wide ploughed field, just by the edge of a big Hazel copse. I've never seen this behaviour before and was riveted for the half minute or so before the Stoat vanished into the copse with a Grey Squirrel shaking its tail in anger ten feet above it in an Oak.
The second unusual sighting for January 1st (for me anyway) was a Common Shrew legging it across the track just in front of me. This was followed after considerable scanning of open hillsides by a very distant Brown Hare crouched in its form by a tractor wheel-rut.
Later on I found a female Roe Deer's ears sticking up from deep grass and herbage at Moor Green to put me on six mammals for the year. Despite considerable effort I couldn't find a Rabbit anywhere and a trip to the Badger sett proved abortive as rain finally caught up with me and Clare, who had earlier photographed one of my local foxes snugged down under ivy-clad trees but perfectly visible.
No new mammals on the second but on the third I photographed the fox sitting up sleepily, unaware of me, before he turned round and settled down again next to his presumed mate whom I had noted with him as Tansy and I passed, just before nipping indoors for my camera. At dusk I again visited the Badgers (who stayed underground on a colder evening) and this time finally saw a Rabbit feeding in the fields.
John
I hope not everyone began their year trying to throw off a cold, as I did, but I didn't let it stop me getting into the field. I did revert to a heavier emphasis on birding for the first couple of days, I'm not happy till I'm 100-up, but I still encountered a few mammals along the way.
After a day locally that netted 79 birds including Jack Snipe, Woodcock and Red-crested Pochard, I had a lie-in on 2nd then zipped to Pagham where wildfowl and shorebirds along with 2 Bitterns and a Bearded Tit by the North Wall dragged me up to 98. On 3rd I opened the door to find 20 Waxwings in the tree opposite, and a hooting Tawny Owl brought up the hundred that evening.
On the first the Red Foxes were vocal from about 0300. Maz got up early so Tansy wouldn't dawdle on her morning walk in the dark: we were treated to one fox trotting past us and provoking a chase from the dog (who I just caught as she gathered speed in her chariot) then down by the brook another actually growled at us and held its ground, leading the three of us to retreat in confusion. I couldn't see due to the dark and the steep bank it was looking over, but I suspect it had just acquired a fat Mallard and wasn't going to give it up easily. Being driven off by a fox is a new experience for me.
After my Jack Snipe dawn I worked round the Greywell fields and was very lucky to see a Stoat performing the "dance of death" at the far side of a wide ploughed field, just by the edge of a big Hazel copse. I've never seen this behaviour before and was riveted for the half minute or so before the Stoat vanished into the copse with a Grey Squirrel shaking its tail in anger ten feet above it in an Oak.
The second unusual sighting for January 1st (for me anyway) was a Common Shrew legging it across the track just in front of me. This was followed after considerable scanning of open hillsides by a very distant Brown Hare crouched in its form by a tractor wheel-rut.
Later on I found a female Roe Deer's ears sticking up from deep grass and herbage at Moor Green to put me on six mammals for the year. Despite considerable effort I couldn't find a Rabbit anywhere and a trip to the Badger sett proved abortive as rain finally caught up with me and Clare, who had earlier photographed one of my local foxes snugged down under ivy-clad trees but perfectly visible.
No new mammals on the second but on the third I photographed the fox sitting up sleepily, unaware of me, before he turned round and settled down again next to his presumed mate whom I had noted with him as Tansy and I passed, just before nipping indoors for my camera. At dusk I again visited the Badgers (who stayed underground on a colder evening) and this time finally saw a Rabbit feeding in the fields.
John
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