Friday 1 January 2016

Friday 1st. January 2016

Firstly , a happy New Year to all .
The tail end of the old year failed to produce an upturn in sightings , so just a picture catch up on the few that were found , mostly in very poor light conditions .
The first of two visits to Bough Beech Reservoir found this Little Egret in the Oast Stream , running
into a very quickly filling reservoir , on the distant bank of which , was a female Goosander dozing ,
and her mate doing like-wise on the water . In the surrounding woodland , a Goldcrest searching for
food and a female Bullfinch that just allowed a single shot before disappearing . On the second visit ,
just a single Common Buzzard over the Visitor Centre , before being driven off by the local Corvids , but at least the sun had come out .
A visit to Sevenoaks Reserve finally managed to get a Siskin in the viewfinder , a male , before the
end of the year , along with a Redwing , one of a small flock , a species that has been really hard to
find this winter . From Willow Hide , a flash by from a Kingfisher and winter plumaged Great

Crested and Little Grebe , were all that were worthy of mention .
With Bearded Tit and Cetti's Warbler being seen at South Norwood Country Park , I made a first visit to try and find both . Another sunny period did not help when the Beardie finally came into view , as
the bird landed between the camera and the low winter sun , so an almost silhouette was achieved . No luck with the Cetti's , but I did see the back end of a Water Rail in the little stream and a Grey
Wagtail posed briefly , for once in a tree . On my way out , I managed to get unusually close to a
Rose-ringed Parakeet , before it flew off , squawking noisily . Yesterday , before visitors arrived , I
had another try , again failing with the Cetti's , but managing to get the Beardie in better light . Having seen a shot of the Cetti's taken yesterday afternoon , I made another attempt this morning , before going visiting this afternoon . I dipped for a third time , but was compensated by four Lesser Redpolls .I had just got them used to my being there and they were feeding happily , when a runner in
a fluorescent top came round the corner , and that was the last I saw of them . Around the site , there
must have been a dozen Song Thrushes in full song , this being one , and the back end of another Water Rail was also spotted .
And finally , when Carol brought her washing in off the line the other day , she spotted what she thought was a young Ladybird on one of the towels . It is a 2-spot Ladybird / Adalia bipunctata , just
about half the size of a 7-spot ,  and one of four forms that this species can be found in .

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Fred - I've made a couple of visits to the Raptor Viewpoint for Beardies, but only had fleeting glimpses of a couple (not masses like last year)

Warren Baker said...

Happy new year Greenie!

Its been a tough year for wildlifing, lets hope for better in 2016 :-)

roger.wood800 said...

A very happy new year to you, too

Phil said...

Nice post and pics Greenie, despite the often poor light!
Happy new year to you and Carol. Will no doubt bump into you in the near future.

Ken. said...

Greenie.
Belated Happy New Year to you and Carol. Look forward to your 2016 postings.