karen's country calendar

9am and I sat down at the table in the Conservatory to do this years Big Garden Birdwatch, and set the laptop up so I could watch yesterdays episode of Winterwatch at the same time - was going to say killing two birds with one stone but I dont think that is quite appropriate in these circumstances!  First, up in the trees were 6 woodpigeon and 6 greenfinches , so that was the total score for them though  some did also visit the bird feeders during the hour. A magpie then joined them and the finches flew off. I had to wait 10 minutes before any birds came on the feeders and to my surprise, they were two house sparrows !  In the past 30 years I have never had any in the garden, although they have been seen on the roof tops,  and this was the second time I had seen them visiting the garden in the past couple of weeks so a big tick for two of those. It was quite breezy so I wondered if that would make a difference to visiting bird but soon there was some flutt...

 I had a delivery to do in Grafham so took the opportunity to take a walk along the dam at Grafham Water as you never know what might turn up! My first bird was a pied wagtail ..tick.  then I caught sight of a wader in the distance which I soon identified as a redshank running in and out of the waves as they broke on the shoreline.   I was surprised to see a large group of about 20 goldeneye swimming a short distance away from the shore but as I watched they suddenly disappeared... then  appeared again.  As I neared  the group I realised they were all in fact diving under the water together, then all surfacing at the same time. This was repeated time and  time again.  I also photographed what I assumed to be just another grebe but later discovered it was in fact the great northern diver which had been seen there recently. I hadnt known about it and certainly didnt expect to see one! An unexpected bonus! I seem to be getting in a habit of this...

 A cold morning was the perfect time to visit my local reserve to see what I could add to my rather small list so far for 2022 and especially since I had heard a black necked grebe had been seen there. I decided to walk round the southern side first as that was was nearer the island where the ducks seem to shelter.  I came to the opening where I knew there was a good view and asked a birder who  was already standing with his  scope  if he had seen the grebe. He hadn't so I just scanned the island with my binoculars and took a few zoomed in photos as I have found  that I can  sometimes identify birds from photos which I havent been able to from  my binoculars. I noticed a little grebe bob up not far from the  shore which I was pleased with as this small grebe often evades me. Further round the lake I came across a group of birders also looking for the black necked grebe and had managed to spot it in  their telescope.  They kindly let...

 My first chance for a new year outing so I decided to visit a new reserve for me, Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve.  My first sighting however, was well before I arrived when I came across a field of Whooper Swans feeding.  On arrival at the reserve I was shown by a warden where to start my walk round the reserve and soon found my way to The  Mound where a platform had been constructed overlooking the main lake.  There were plenty of ducks and geese visible but without a telescope it wasn't possible to identify all the ducks so I could only make out mallards and shovelers definitely.  I had heard there were pink footed geese on the reserve but they were very hard to tell apart from the more common greylags. I continued my circular walk and added a little egret and marsh harrier to my list as well as the usual garden varieties together with the resident Konik ponies and water buffalo which help to manage the landscape. Unfortunately there were no hides to ...

 It was still sunny at 3pm so decided it might be a good opportunity to pop over to Fen Drayton in  the hope of seeing a Starling Mumuration as I had heard there had been a few aerial displays recently. The reserve was busy, mostly with walkers and families rather than bird watchers I think so I parked my car and waited. Within 10 minutes a small flock of starlings flew over my head , then another and after a short wait I noticed a black shape moving around in the distance.  I was hopeful I wouldnt be disappointed and as I watched, the group got bigger and was soon swirling around the sky. More flocks of starlings flew in and joined in and at one time I saw three separate murmurations at the same time which then amalgamated in to one. The display lasted around 20 minutes and although the sky had clouded over a bit and the shapes werent as spectacular as sometimes, I left, satisfied that I had made the effort to visit.   

 When I heard Richard had a survey just a few miles from Frampton Marsh nature reserve I couldnt miss the opportunity to get a lift there to get  my wader  sightings up whilst he undertook his survey. On arrival everything was shut up which I was expecting as they dont open until 10am and I arrived just after 9am. However, there were quite a few cars in the car park already and I could see people in the distance silhouetted at the top of the sea wall.  I soon met someone walking back and on asking  whether there was anything  exciting to see, he mentioned the presence of a Pacific plover.  "Where?" I asked and my heart sunk when he said it was the other side of the sea wall, since I hadnt planned to walk that far but decided it would be silly to miss the opportunity of a rare sighting and tick for my list.  When I got to the bank there were several birders there with their scopes and they soon showed me where they had seen it and when it appeared ...

 With a hot sunny day forecast we set off  to visit RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire.   We took advice and arrived before 10am but were directed to the overflow carpark as the main carpark was already full (and had been since 7am, due to the presence of the black browed albatross which had been seen in the area recently) The eight or so viewing platforms are spaced out along the cliff top with the visitor centre between them so we went right to start with as that was where the albatross was usually seen.  There were hoardes of photographers with their long lenses, telescopes and tripods set up everywhere but people were keen to tell us that the albatross was indeed present, sitting comfortably amongst the gannets on the cliffs.  It was hard to find it without binoculars but just noticeable by his obvious black back.   I found people were kind enough to move out of the way when they saw I was using crutches!  We then made our way back the other way...