Nethergong Birding

Recording during the night of the 24th produced a calling Barn Owl (72) in the week. Saturday and Sunday morning were both spent walking around the area in lovely sunny winter conditions. Saturday started at 06:30 until 10:30 where I noted 44 Mute Swan, 2 Teal (73) flushed from the main lake, c65 Stock Dove, 1 Water Rail, 20 Moorhen, 3 Coot, c120 Lapwing, 2 Woodcock into roost, 3 Snipe, 61 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Common Buzzard, 2 Great spotted Woodpecker, 2 Green Woodpecker, 5 Siskin (74) 2 Raven, 1 Skylark (75) 3 Cetti's Warbler, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Treecreeper, 5 Song Thrush, 3 Fieldfare, 5 Stonechat, 1 Pied Wagtail, 3 Meadow Pipit and 12 Greylag Geese (76) flying south towards Grove Ferry.

Sunday morning dawned frosty but despite waiting for the Woodcock to fly into roost, none appeared. Birding the area until 10:30 produced 2 Greylag Geese, 52 Mute Swan, 124 Stock Dove, 8 Collared Dove, 2 Water Rail, 18 Moorhen, 3 Coot, 406 Lapwing, 1 Snipe, c400 Black headed Gull, c200 Herring Gull, 5 Common Gull, 202 Cormorant, 3 Marsh Harrier, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Common Buzzard, 2 Great spotted Woodpecker, 2 Kestrel, 2 Raven, 3 Cetti's Warbler, 8 Long tailed Tit, 153 Starling, 60 Fieldfare, 1 Stonechat, 21 House Sparrow and 1 Grey Wagtail. The local farmer planted a corner of a field last year with Sunflowers and these have been let to turn to seed. This in turn has resulted in good numbers of finches being seen which included c50 Chaffinch, c15 Greenfinch, 22 Linnet, 6 Reed Bunting, c30 Goldfinch and most surprisingly of all, at least 4 Brambling (77). This is normally a species I only see in autumn as a flyover so really nice to see them on the deck. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more in the flock of birds. 

Nocmig stats for the month resulted in 6 nights recording where the birds recorded included Tawny Owl, Barn Owl, Snipe and Mallard. 

Brambling