Wednesday 2 November 2016

There was a considerable drop in temperature this morning as I pulled up at Nethergong at 6.15am. I spent a while sitting in the car listening again and noted a few flyover Redwing, 2 Tawny Owl, 1 Skylark and 1 Grey Heron was seen in silhouette flying into the stream to land. As the light got better, I parked up in Nethergong and after putting on extra layers, hat, scarf and gloves, I made my way around the site for the next 3 hours in what turned out to be a very cold morning but with some lovely autumnal sunshine. I managed to see or hear 57 species which again did not include a few of the commoner birds which with more time, I'm sure I would have found. The morning did include another new bird for the year and one that I did not predict in the shape of 5 Crossbill (108) which were hear initially calling before they flew overhead heading north, a real bonus bird for the year indeed. There were 5 Goldcrest, c84 Cormorant, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Cetti's Warbler, 1 Golden Plover heard, 2 Water Rail, 1 Chiffchaff, 4 Jay, 1 Grey Wagtail which posed nicely in the sunshine, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 1 Common Buzzard, 4 Common Snipe, c40 Fieldfare, 1 Green Sandpiper and 1 Yellowhammer.


Long tailed Tit

Also seen were 3 Mute Swan, 2 Pheasant, 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Brambling heard calling, 2 Pied Wagtail, 1 Kestrel, 15 Lapwing, 1 Linnet, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Stonechat, 2 Little Egret, 1 Siskin and 1 Treecreeper.

Lesser Redpoll

I was more than happy to reach 100 species for the year but when I reached 105 species, this exceeded what I thought I might get here but I now think that 110 species is actually possible. With a good winter, there are still a few birds that I could get, some flyover Geese, Goosander, Jack Snipe, a Grebe on the lake, Corn Bunting and a few more I'm sure are all possible in the right conditions. Lets hope its a good end to the year. 

Grey Wagtail 

4 comments:

  1. Marc, the birds are excellent, love them, especially the Long-tailed Tit, beautiful.

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  2. You made the most of the excellent light today Marc - lovely images, the Autumn/Winter sunshine ( when it does shine) is so much better than the summer light. Good luck with the 110 species I reckon with a hard winter 115 will be possible there :-)

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    1. With no campers on site until April, I can really put the time in and search everywhere on site. It has so much potential and i'm sure with time, will turn up some more excellent stuff.

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