Blinged up Redshank

 

Given the lockdown and the restrictions on travel, the bird list for this year, sitting at 98 half way through February, doesn't look too bad. It is perhaps more interesting for what is missing from it, than for what is in it. No Greylag Goose, no Owls, no Great Spotted Woodpecker and lots of other common birds missing, Blackcap, Jay, Water Rail, Bar-tailed Godwit, Snipe, Kittiwake, Fulmer, Spotted Redshank, Fieldfare. I know where to look for them and would probably have seen them all by this point in a normal year but I am just not getting out to see them.

I have, however, managed to get a few pictures whilst out on exercise walks. That being despite the only days with decent light for photography, being so cold that it was difficult to hold the camera. The metal casings just seem to suck the heat out of your fingers.

It was good to capture this Redshank just off the seawall at Farlington Marsh. Pete Potts who ringed it at Farlington back in September 2020 supplied a history which showed that it had been seen at Farlington twice more during that September but then not again until my sighting on the 22nd of January.

The secret life of birds. You have to wonder where it has been for the past four months.

Redshank with colour rings.

One bird that I did go looking for was the White-fronted Goose. This is not a bird that I see every year and I usually have to go over to Pett Levels or Scotney Pit to see it. This year it was to be found in big numbers all along the south coast. That is everywhere and big numbers except for all the places I visited. I always seemed  to be a day late but I did eventually manage to catch up with a family group. One benefit of the pandemic is that this is the first time I have ever recorded it on what I would consider as my home patch.

White-fronted Goose

And a Kestrel from the same walk

Kestrel

The River Adur offers another interesting birding walk close to home although the paths can get a little crowded with dog walkers and family groups. It offers the usual dilemma, travel further and find isolation or exercise close to home and dodge the crowds.

It was a bit grey and murky that day but I did see a few good birds and add a few year ticks to the list.

Common Sandpiper

Female Goosander

Little Grebe launching into the wind.

Ringed Plovers about to be dislodged by the rising tide.

Unfortunately there was no sign of the Peregrine(s) sitting on the cement works chimney. That will have to be one for another day.

I also spent a couple of hours on the coldest morning of the year on a sea watch. The idea was to get a few pictures of passing birds to take home and work on my identification skills. Not the best choice of days. In two hours I had two Cormorants, three distant Gannets and a couple of black dots that proved to be pixel size on the pictures.

Not a lot learnt in the way of identification skills but an interesting experience and I will be trying it again.

Cormorants

The weather forecast is for warm winds from the Mediterranean areas so we could see a few early migrants over the next week or so. I hope they don't come to early, the last cold spell will have already taken a heavy toll on some of the overwintering birds.