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.