Rain Stops Play
Actually a bit of a misleading title as the rain didn’t start till we were nearly home but it makes for a more interesting title than boots filled with water make us go home early, confused yet? Sorry I know, I’ll start properly now.
Rain Stops Play
I awoke this morning with plans of a nice patch walk with my daughter, we have been confined to the house a lot recently, yet another family death (My step father R.I.P Perry Harris you will be sorely missed) and then sickness bugs over Christmas kind of curtailed any adventures on the patch, then it was back to work for me, so today was my first opportunity to get out and we woke to bright sunshine! It was very cold, and really windy but it was Sunny so that is what I focused on. And so we donned our water proofs (it is England after all and storms are predicted to get quite bad this week), and headed out.
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| Blues skies and Gulls |
First birding of the year
As birding trips go I was quite excited today is basically my 1st Jan birding so pretty much anything I see will be new for the patch for the year (Bar Canada goose, Robin, Dunnock and Blackbird the only birds I have seen/heard so far on my dark cycles to work) and with my competition with Simon starting it added to my excitement.
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| Reeds |
On stepping out of the door I was greeted with Wood Pigeon, Collard Dove, Starling, Blue Tit and Great Tit, Magpie and Carrion Crow followed pretty quickly as did Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Blackbird. A really good start and we hadn’t even reached the lake.
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| Bo watching for birds |
On the Lake
On the lake itself there was a nice raft of Black Headed Gulls with one lone Lesser Black-backed Gull in amongst them as well as Mallard, Great Crested Grebe and Coot, a small group of Goldfinch extended my list and then the big one fell!!
Standing on the duck feeding platform looking through the gulls, I heard and unusual raspy finch call from above me and raising my binoculars was greeted with a rather dull brown finch, at first I was a little confused thinking that is a very odd call for a chaffinch, then it struck me it was a female BRAMBLING my first on the patch, and a real mega for here (in fact it may be the first), unfortunately it didn’t hang around and continued its flight off over towards Two Mile Ash.
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| A storm approaches |
Puddles
Continuing around the lake a few more species were added, Dunnock, skulking in the bushes, Moorhen picking through the margins, Canada Goose edging up the bank for food, Mute Swans regally patrolling the lake, a couple of Cormorants swooping like some prehistoric creature down onto the lake for a fish and one lone Stock Dove flying quickly to avoid the now on coming storm clouds. My day’s total was now 24 species, full list below (not bad for a short walk) and my years patch total now 25 (including a Robin not that I saw any today) but the trip was over. Why you ask? well read on.
Once we had got about half way around the lake we came across a large number of puddles and you know what puddles mean, yup, they mean Bo splashing (just look at the photos) big splashes in these puddles and then we would head off down the river, past the Troll Hole, in search of who knows what, except once we were a short way down the river Bo starting saying her feet were wet, on sitting her on a bench I took off a boot only to find it full of water, I could literally squeeze her feet and water flooded out! I’m a harsh dad making her go out in all weather but even I’m not cruel enough to make her continue to walk in such wet clothes and so we headed home.
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| Deep Puddles |
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| Splashing is fun |
Lashing Rain and Filled Boots
By the time we reached our road the approaching storm was on us and the rain was lashing down, so we were fortunate that wet feet had brought us home or we would have been really wet!
I will hopefully get out a bit more in coming weeks when everyone is back to work/school and I can do what I like on my days off. Anyway I hope you like the photos and here is the days list (in the order I wrote them down):
Rain Stops Play Bird List
- Blue Tit
- Great Tit
- Starling
- Collard Dove
- Wood Pigeon
- Carrion Crow
- Greenfinch
- Magpie
- Blackbird
- Black Headed Gull
- Lesser Black-Backed Gull
- Coot
- Mallard
- Chaffinch
- Great Crested Grebe
- BRAMBLING*
- Goldfinch
- Dunnock
- House Sparrow
- Moorhen
- Cormorant
- Canada Goose
- Mute Swan
- Stock Dove
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2 Comments
Cherry Harris
Sounds like a good trip with a Brmbling to add to the collection – long time since I've seen one of them (probably in Norfolk if I remember rightly – or would it have been Kent?). Shame about the wet boots!
Si
Yes mate – Brambling was indeed a mega ! First record for the patch area – I am sure with the amount of Gardens and Feeders all over Great Holm and Bradwell Village that they must be here , but this goes down as the first one for 103 Species.