A "Mega" to start 2017

My last blog entry had a mystery photograph, and I received 2 suggestions as to who the lady was. “Unknown” (whoever he/she is), suggested Dawn French.  Good effort   Wrong.

Slim Bridge, who incidentally is setting up his own face book, so we may see what he looks like, had a dose of the inspirational Devon air and came up with the answer Claudia Winkleman. Good effort …. Correct!  Well done. You win a coconut.

As I said last week, after my poor result for 2016 (181) this year is really getting off to a cracking start, and I started on January 1^st with a cracking count of 48, obviously all new for 2017! The last 7 days boosted this figure by 21 more species so that on 8^th January I’m on 69, and the rest of January includes plans that will guarantee (?) 100 by the end of January.

3^rd January.  The target was 4/5 special birds… getting volume can always be plugged later, but you need to see quality birds whilst they are around.  So 8.30 saw Chris, John and I set off for Cromford to look for a Hawfinch.  We joined 7/8 people scanning the trees near Willersley Castle. Just as we decided to change our plans, 3 Hawfinches were spotted at the top of the high trees by the gate. A tricky bird to find so seeing them early in the year, is excellent.

A walk by the river Derwent towards Matlock Bath, enabled John to spot a single Dipper, working along the water’s edge.

Next stop was the village of Beeley on the edge of the Chatsworth Estate, to see the Dusky Thrush, which I have mentioned before. It has been around since the 4^th December, and should really be in Japan. I’d ducked going to see it in 2016, saving it as a Lifer and a Mega to start 2017, which worked!

A quick look at Beeley Moor to see if the Great Grey Shrike was around was abortive, so we tootled over to Bumper Castle and were rewarded with a huge number of Fieldfare. Then, the bird I hoped to find, Bramblings, feeding round beech trees. This is a bird Chris wanted and missed in 2016.

We had lunch at Carsington (Good soup..I had a late breakfast!), followed by an unsuccessful search for the Great Northern Diver.  With 4 special birds, it was a good birding day, 40 birds were a good count.

4^th January.  Birding from the No 6 bus to Bakewell, ticked the Peregrine Falcon on the Jury’s hotel sign.

5^th January. I had a couple of hours to spare, and it’s only 30 minutes to Staunton Harold Reservoir, so I ticked off the pair of female Velvet Scoters. The white flash on the rump distinguishes them from the Common Scoter.

7^th January. The DOS led a walk at Attenborough with a 9am start. Unfortunately, it was very misty so we could not even see the other side of the Trent. Started with a good number of Bullfinches going down the lane in front of us, and Greenfinch and Reed Bunting, which I needed, plus Shoveller. It was so muddy, Chris and I peeled off and went back a different way, which enabled us to tick Egyptian Goose. I decided to have a last look at the Kingfisher hide before going home, and added Little Egret, then from the hide a feeding Water Rail in front of the hide.

8^th January.  Several years ago, I introduced an “away-trip” for those people on my Carsington walk, who would like to visit and be guided round Attenborough. 9 people joined me this year, and we had 3 hours birding, with an excellent count of 47 species. My personal list increased with Mandarin Duck and a Cetti Warbler.  The female Mandarin caused some confusion last year, being confused with a Wood Duck but we were quite clear in 2017 - in fact it was seen at exactly the same place.  The Cetti is a warbler, which like Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, have started to over winter. The Cetti today was seen from the Kingfisher hide, feeding amongst the reeds immediately in front of the hide.

Bird of the day was probably the 3 Water Rails, mainly because Georgena spotted one in the reeds by the path near Attenborough church, only to find there were 2 birds ... and then another at the Kingfisher hide!

What a good week.. next week includes Rufford, Old Moor and Norfolk.. now they should get some goodies.

Happy Birding.

............and now the start of yet another Birding Year!

As promised, 1^st January and here I go hoping (again) to try and hit the 200 species in 2017.

I hope you too are ready and rearing to go for 2017, and you all had an enjoyable Xmas. Me? Yes I did, but I have to start the year with a sort of apology, or more an illustration of my computer miscontraception, sorry misconception.

Only from reading Mary’s copy of my pre-Xmas blog post (she’s an avid reader/critic), did I appreciate that you good people who have registered for an e-mail when I post a new article, not only cannot read any comments that people have made, but you can’t add a comment yourself.  You can only do this via the web site. So if you read something and feel that it warrants a comment (Like Slim Bridges comment, about non PC matters), you will have to log into my blog. Comments ARE very welcome, but as I have said before, I have the power to delete them!

A major non-birding happening planned for the festive season involved Mary and I, our NOK’s Sarah and Michael with their respective halves, going to London for the day with the intention of visiting a venue that would remove one item from Mary’s bucket list. She had always wanted to dine at The Ivy, so we did.

We wallowed in the impeccable service, scanned the tables for celebrities, and 2 tables away was……….

                                                        

Mary found a reason to leave the table, and on the way back came face to face (Ed: That's a clue) with this very well known celebrity, enough time to swap platitudes. Now she won’t stop talking about the meeting, but it just made the bucket shop trip even more memorable. But who is she????

Sunday1^st January 2017.    So having earned some brownie points, I was rewarded with the Full English this morning, which set me up for the start to Birding 2017. 8.00am at Markeaton was wet, cold and dark, but in the available hour, 25 were in the book, with pride of place going to a large flock of Redwings.

Near the bird table (which is near the Ha-Ha) there is/was a fairly new substantial seat for people to sit and watch the comings and goings on the table. Great Tits, some Peckers, Stock Doves and Nuthatches are frequent, and the news clearly spread amongst our avian friends that breakfast was ready!

What made me angry was to see that some half-brain had completely smashed the wooden seat, a seat which was  a memorial to someone who enjoyed that particular location.  What stupidity.

Next location was Carsington for the Monthly Beginners walk, but I decided to drop into Bradley Dam to see if I could tick off Mandarin Duck. I found that the dam had been virtually drained, trees had been uprooted, and heavy plant was obviously at work. My enquiries established that this work has been going on for a while, allegedly to improve a nature facility for the enjoyment of locals. Hmm.

15 people joined my walk, and Gary suggested that as the weather was scheduled to improve, it would help if we visited the Wildlife Centre first, and hope it will be drier later. We tried it, and from about 11.15, the rain was quite light. As always the warmth of the Wildlife Centre means that scopes and bins mist up, but we did get some good views of Snipe, and Willow Tits on the feeder could be seen without bins.

After an unproductive look at the Ranger base feeders, a quick(-ish) walk round Stones identified Ruff, Redshank, and a handsome male Goldeneye tied with Snipe for the bird of the walk.

I ended day 1 of 2017 by a walk along the Derwent at Cromford, hoping to see Dipper and Hawfinch. Dipped on both, but the compensation on the way home, was a good flock of Fieldfare near Duffield. Considering the weather, a total of 48species on day one was very satisfactory.

Next Sunday (8^th January), I will be birding at Attenborough gravel pits, targeting Water rail and Bittern. Anyone interested can join me at 9.30, in the car park, for 3 hours. (The DOS is doing the same walk the previous day at 9.00am.)

appy Birding