More January sightings

I'm not finding it very easy to keep the blog up, having said I would revive it this year!  The main reason is that it competes with the blog I write in Welsh, which also serves to allow me to practice and keep up with my Welsh writing.

However, we did go to Wicken Fen at the beginning of the year (2nd January) and I hoped I would see the Hen Harriers that roost there coming in at the end of the day, but no luck.  It was a beautiful clear day, with much sun and blue skies, but also a very busy day, full of families with children having a great time - and hence noisy.  The hen harriers are not very tolerant of human activity apparently and so perhaps roosted somewhere else.  We did see marsh harriers however, though we didn't really have good views.

So I've listed below what I have seen this year, in no particular order, according to my lists - don't always remember to note them down.  It is amazing how many species of birds there are around to see once you look and make a note - otherwise sightings are forgotten fairly quickly!  And having now fixed the problem I had with my camera when using the shutter priority or the aperture priority I continue to hope that I might get some better photos of the local kestrels or even the kites!

Snipe
Chiff-chaff
Water rail
herring gull
common gull
lesser black backed gull
widgeon
shoveler
golden-eye
great crested crebe
little grebe
cormorant
robin
black-cap
long-tailed tit
blue tit
great tit
chaffinch
blackbird
mute swan
tufted duck
gadwall
mallard
coal tit
songthrush
Marsh Harrier
Reed bunting
greenfinch
house sparrow
goldfinch
kestrel
Meadow pipit
Buzzard
Oyster catcher
Red Kite
curlew
woodpigeon

New Year's Day sightings

I've not been posting to this blog for some time - and have been reporting some of my nature sightings and musings in my Welsh blog, Aildysgu, but thought I should try to revive this blog as one of my aims for 2015 is to be a bit more consistent in recording what I see around me.

2015 got off to a somewhat grey and murky start.  The temperature had risen after a few very frosty but sunny days with the temperature never rising much about freezing, giving lovely views of the local common:

This morning, by contrast, was warmer but also windier and I joined the local RSPB group for their annual New Year's Day walk at Willen Lake.

We started watching from the shores of the lake where we saw a number of different ducks including  wigeon, gadwall, tufted such and a couple of golden eye, as well as great crested grebes and dabchicks we went off to the hide to see what we could see from there.  One of the birds spotted from the hide was a chiff-chaff and I was surprised to learn that the chiff-chaff sometimes over-winters in the UK.  We had an excellent view of quite a pretty brown bird that was constantly moving around, so little chance to photograph it. We were ready to leave the hide when someone spotted a water rail.  Although it had retreated into the reeds, it re-appeared and we had a good view as it quickly ran from one patch or reeds to another.  I have never seen a water rail before and did not know what an attractive bird they are.  There was more to come - two or three snipe were also in the reeds and although the view of the birds in the reeds were limited, we had quite good views of two of the birds flying off with their typical zig-zag pattern.  It's a long time since I have seen a snipe - the pattern particularly around their eyes is very striking.