2017 begins

Not had a bad start to the year at HP so far, apart from not being able to get down there properly until the 14th, when a Great White Egret was found and reported about midday. I had planned to be there by about then, but a management meeting about the nature reserve went on longer than i expected, so i didnt get down til mid-afternoon. Luckily the egret was still there, a long-overdue patch tick, but too late as they have been demoted to a lowly 2 points! 

Aside from the egret, it was good to get on patch but not a great deal else of note was seen, but a gulling session on the A52 Pit was nice, although there were no scarce gulls but all the commoner species were seen. A volunteer session the next day added to the weekends total which ended on a reasonable 47 species.

This Saturday, I gave the patch a good 3 and a half hours, knocking up a decent day total of 54 species, including a patch-first Sibe Chiff (a handy 3 points) and the sometimes elusive Treecreeper. A Redhead Smew finally gave itself up on the eastern edge of the A52 pit and an early Shelduck was also present. It was nice to get the wintering Common Sand again too, taking my running total to 61 species, so pretty good really. Only one weekend to go this month, but hopefully there will be time to knock a few of my pre-spring targets off, and who knows maybe more birds of interest - a nice Bean Goose or some scarce duck would be nice...