Nocmig recording earlier in the week produced a booming Bittern calling during the night. Always a highlight of the year hear this species calling from the Stour Valley and hopefully, I can hear one calling for myself early in the morning in the coming weeks. Also recorded were Tawny Owl, Barn Owl, Water Rail and Wigeon (85) were heard over Chislet Marshes Wednesday night. Whilst putting the recorder out on Wednesday night, 3 Grey Partridge and 1 Red legged Partridge were heard.
It must be the weekend again as the usual rubbish weather was again present this morning. No rain today but thick fog hampered many birds being seen but I ploughed on and saw a reasonable amount of species. On a quick visit yesterday I managed to see 3 Barnacle Geese (83) flying towards Grove Ferry with 7 Greylag Geese. Only the second time I have encountered this species on the patch. Back to today. I started off this morning at 05:30 on Chislet Marshes where I wandered on up the main path to listen to the day waking up. One of the first birds I heard calling was a Red legged Partridge. I had recorded it distantly last week but it was great to actually hear it calling. I continued on up the path until I ended up quite near as it was calling in the dark. There were also 3 Grey Partridge calling too. I then drove around to Nethergong and parked up and spent a few hours walking around in the fog, mostly listening for birds. Noted this morning were 1 Mute Swan, 2 Egyptian Geese flew up from the main lake, 5 Mallard, 1 Teal, 3 Pheasant, 2 Stock Dove, 43 Woodpigeon, 5 Moorhen, 3 Coot, 3 Herring Gull, 2 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 2 Green Woodpecker, 1 Kestrel and 2 Jay. There were 24 Jackdaw, c20 Rook, 2 Skylark, 5 Chiffchaff, 2 Cetti's Warbler, 5 Long tailed Tit, 1 Firecrest (84), 1 Treecreeper, c40 Starling, 7 Song Thrush, 32 Redwing, 51 Fieldfare, 3 Dunnock, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Meadow Pipit, 10 Chaffinch, 3 Greenfinch, 12 Linnet, 5 Goldfinch, 5 Yellowhammer and 3 Reed Bunting.
