............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