Tuesday 1 January 2013

Tuesday 1st. January 2013

What with the weather and the festivities , trips out have been few and far between . But , even when I have got out , very little of interest was found at either Hayes Farm , Keston Ponds or South Norwood Country Park . The feeders in the garden had only been attracting the usual Greenfinches
























 and Goldfinches , until Christmas Day itself , when , whilst helping with the dinner , I noticed a smaller bird arrive with the Greenfinches , which turned out to be the first Siskin in the garden this
























Winter . Not the best of shots , but it was pouring and the light was really bad at the time . I kept my eyes on the feeders for the rest of the day , but the Redpoll didn't appear , nor the Brambling that I was hoping to arrive with the Chaffinches to feed on the path , but as Meatloaf didn't sing , 'One out of three ain't bad ' .
With the sun out this morning , I headed for Sevenoaks Reserve , and although chilly , it was good to be out again . A Bittern had been seen from Willow Hide on Sunday , so I headed straight there , checking out an almost birdless West Lake as I passed . On arrival , I dropped the flap to see what was about on Snipe Bog Lake , which was quite a good few species , but no sign of the Bittern . The most noticeable thing was the bitter wind that was blowing straight in off the lake . Seven species of duck were on view , the best being a pair of Wigeon , together with the usual three species of goose , two Grebes , Coots a plenty and Moorhens . Making my way down towards Long Lake , I tried , and failed miserably , to photograph a Goldcrest , but did manage a Song Thrush fossicking for it's
breakfast , whilst being over flown by two of the Mistle variety . No Kingfisher sightings , but the usual RRParakeets were occupying their usual space at the end of the track . Turning and heading
back towards the VC , four Mute Swans flew by and landed on the East Lake , three of them being juveniles , just starting to come into adult plumage . From Tyler Hide , a large gathering of Common and BHGulls , and tucked away in the gloom of one of the islands still to receive the rising sun , several Common Snipe . The islands down towards Tower Hide were occupied almost entirely by
Lapwing , and as I passed , they all decided to take off , and after a few circuits of the lake , return to
where they started from . Tower and Slingsby Hides produced very little , so it was back to the car park , still without any sign of a Siskin . The car park was now full , but I grabbed a few minutes in
Grebe Hide , managing to get a few shots of one of the Marsh Tits . Lots of Blue and Great Tits were
also coming to the feeders , along with a somewhat larger species , that made the others disappear .
48 species , nothing special , but it was good to be out in the sun .

3 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Its been hard this past few weeks Greenie, but spring is just around the corner, not long now for some adder action :-)

Nice marsh tit photo BTW

ShySongbird said...

The Siskin was a nice little Christmas present Greenie. Love the photo of the Marsh Tit. Glad you enjoyed getting out again. The wind was bitter here too and there were hardly any birds about at all on my walk.

Wishing you and Carol a Very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Phil said...

A nice start to the year Greenie. Happy new year to you and yours!