As it was sunny (and above 0 degrees C) today I went for a bit of a walk. In the tiny park near my house there were about 10 Brambling, 1 male Crossbill ,1 Great Spotted Woodpecker and 1 Hawfinch. Lots of the usual noisy Brown eared Bulbul and Dusky Thrush too.
I then got the tram to the cape (Tachi-Machi Misaki) where the wind froze my face and hands-there were 4 Harlequin Duck, 1 Red Throated Diver, 3 Red Breasted Merganser and a raft of about 30 Common Scoter. Best of all were the 2 (maybe 3) Peregrines that were being mobbed by crows. Here were a few Japanese and Pelagic Cormorants too.
I walked back down the coast into town. There is a small fishing harbour that occasionally has some good birds-today there were 12 Brent Goose, 2 Eurasian Wigeon, 1 lonely-looking female Goldeneye and a variety of Gulls including 1 third winter Glacous-Winged-grey wingtips and black eye confirmed the ID. There were also lots of immature Gulls that defied my attempts to identify them-ditto the Black Necked/Slavonian Grebes always just too far out at sea. A solitary Water Pipit and Blue Rock Thrush and a few White Wagtails were on the beach but no interesting gulls.....lots of Black Kites in the air though.
Got back in time for a bath and Star Trek the new generation on Sky (sad but true) and work tommorrow.......
I then got the tram to the cape (Tachi-Machi Misaki) where the wind froze my face and hands-there were 4 Harlequin Duck, 1 Red Throated Diver, 3 Red Breasted Merganser and a raft of about 30 Common Scoter. Best of all were the 2 (maybe 3) Peregrines that were being mobbed by crows. Here were a few Japanese and Pelagic Cormorants too.
I walked back down the coast into town. There is a small fishing harbour that occasionally has some good birds-today there were 12 Brent Goose, 2 Eurasian Wigeon, 1 lonely-looking female Goldeneye and a variety of Gulls including 1 third winter Glacous-Winged-grey wingtips and black eye confirmed the ID. There were also lots of immature Gulls that defied my attempts to identify them-ditto the Black Necked/Slavonian Grebes always just too far out at sea. A solitary Water Pipit and Blue Rock Thrush and a few White Wagtails were on the beach but no interesting gulls.....lots of Black Kites in the air though.
Got back in time for a bath and Star Trek the new generation on Sky (sad but true) and work tommorrow.......
