A few hours on Doxey Marshes was on the agenda today to get my New Year bird list off to a great start. Following on from the surprises of treecreeper and goldcrest a few days ago. Sadly I only managed 45 species today, which comprised of black-headed gull, wren, mallard, teal, snipe, water rail, blue tit, long-tailed tit, magpie, kestrel, fieldfare, redwing, blackbird, kingfisher, moorhen, carrion crow, coot, goldfinch, wood pigeon, little egret, goosander, gadwall, shoveler, lesser black-backed gull, canada goose, greylag goose, barnacle goose, pied wagtail, pheasant, grey heron, starling, buzzard, stonechat, tufted duck, great tit, house sparrow, greenfinch, cormorant, great spotted woodpecker, wigeon, mute swan, lapwing, collared dove and lesser redpoll.
A careful check of the list will reveal some embarrassing omissions. Robin. Song thrush. Dunnock. Could I find one of any of these species anywhere? Why does it always fall that on the one day you want to see everything, they go and hide. Here's to hoping that the rest of the year won't be as difficult!
There was some conciliation however in the form of lesser redpoll. Its not too tricky to pick up a couple of birds around the scrub at the eastern end of the reserve in winter, but I was amazed to find a flock of at least 76 (counted from a photograph) flitting around above the alder trees. This is by far my biggest total I've ever seen on the reserve, and could be one of the biggest counts ever?
No comments:
Post a Comment