Fieldfare

In most years I'll see both Fieldfare and Redwing around the garden - either in the trees briefly perched, feeding on the adjacent embankment or just passing over. Up till now I've had very few ever actually come down into the garden to feed. So in that sense I was pleased to see a lone Fieldfare in the garden this morning, and grabbed a few gainy shots in the early morning gloom through the windows. I was also pleased to see it feeding up, but this also brought home how hard it is in these recent conditions for some species that are much more likely to forage naturally than the garden tits and finches that come in all weathers. I was less pleased though to see the bullying tactics it used to stop everything else feeding!

Gullden Opportunity

Had to head up to Yorks on business today, and took the opportunity to nip into WCPS on the way back late afternoon. Ostensibly I was looking for CR gulls, but I was happy to stand and point the camera at the confiding naked ensemble and some common round Rallidae.

In fact the only CR gull I saw was the ever-present JAN4, which has developed a BO complex

The forecast heavy snow has scuppered part of my weekend plans, as I've had to postpone the much anticipated Pushing the Boundaries talk by Martin Garner and Tormod Amundsen at Rutland Water. I'm still heading down south to the Eurotunnel though for a quick weekend soiree in France with work colleagues - which ensures that my Foot It total will remain static.

Garden tick in the snow

After another 9km or so in wellies yesterday, adding another five species to my Foot It list (Skylark, Yellowhammer, Sparrowhawk at last, Reed Bunting in the morning and Meadow Pipit in the afternoon) today was spent largely indoors apart from collecting Alex from a Cubs camping weekend (I kid you not). I've revised my Foot It target up to 68 (so I'm back to 100%) as I think this is a better reflection of a couple that I should have foreseen and that there are genuine surprises like Barn Owl. There are still a couple of species that I really should see from my original predicted list, plus a couple that I have a chance of seeing given the time and effort. Main constraint is that next weekend I'll be away in France.

But today I added nothing to the list. We had snow falling to some extent throughout the day, though it was mainly piddly little flakes that were not doing anything until mid-afternoon when it got heavier and added another layer on to what we already had. I spent a bit of time looking out at the various feeders in the hope that an elusive garden Coal Tit might drop in, and pointing the camera at various bits (though the shots through double-glazing in low light produced predictably soft or grainy shots). No Coal Tit, but much better was a garden tick Stock Dove. It wasn't a dodgy flyover either, it actually came in with a group of six Woodpigeons and spent time feeding on both the back and front gardens. I'm sure Stock Dove must fly over here quite frequently but I don't tend to spend time out in the garden looking up in hope - virtually all of my garden ticks these days are completely random or fortuitous moments.

Footing It

One of the things I am enjoying about the January Foot It challenge is getting into local areas that I've either forgotten about, ignored or never thought of going to. One such area is Bouskell Park in Blaby. On the face of it there's not really too much to it, but a walk around there this morning during a 15.4km 4hr 35min slog in my wellies was pretty rewarding. Main highlight was a couple of Nuthatches chasing each other around - I had no idea that there were any sites within my 3km challenge radius for this species. Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Bullfinch and Goldcrest were also seen in the park, and c200m away on Mill Lane I picked up a small group of Lesser Redpoll drinking from a ditch. Great local birding which is what the challenge is all about.

Yesterday morning I also took a round trip to Narborough Bog. I set out in the dark and arrived for first light, heading straight through the reserve to a small wooded area south of the railway line where I eventually managed to find a Woodcock - sadly just the usual arse-end view of a disappearing Woodcock but they all count.

As it stands I've walked c38miles and I'm on 63 species for Foot It, which equates to a nice round 100% of my target. I've seen a few unexpected species, but there are still some expected or possibles that have eluded me - most notably Sparrowhawk. I've only seen one Sprawk so far this year and I was in the car at the time.

Looking at birds rings ....

Nipped over to WCPS this afternoon after work for a bit of a diversion from birding on foot from home and trying to identify every living thing in my home square. My intention was to look for colour-ringed gulls and get some photos, but by the time I left work and got there the fog had descended and it was dank with no decent light for photography. Didn't see any colour ringed gull either, but managed to get some grainy shots of a couple of metal rings that are barely discernible and are incomplete. I've made the shots greyscale and reduced the noise in photoshop to produce something just about worth posting.

First-winter Black-headed Gull, ?????27 from ????land - not much use then

Adult Black-headed Gull ???-975 from Denmark

A Pair of Ticks

I've managed to sneak in two PSL ticks into my 1000 in 1kmsq challenge so far - both acquired whilst rooting about haphazardly in the garden. First up was this nice new woodlouse found on Sunday during a between-coats break whilst decorating ....

Rosy Woodlouse

I'd like to find another to try and get a better shot - this one was constantly on the move and trying to get back under stones. The other tick came whilst searching around the garden moth trap last night with a torch. No moths in or around the trap one of two harvestman noted was this .....

Odiellus spinosus

Currently on 59 species without really having made a concerted effort away from the garden, and most of the list at the moment comprises birds seen whilst out on Foot It walks. No vascular plants listed as yet - I'll have a dedicated effort on those sometime soon.

I've created a page up at the top where I'll periodically update the list.