January 2019

Happy New Year to all you birders out there.

Our New Year's Day Ice-breaker was a very enjoyable event for all of us at Paxton. I took 27 people on the traditional tick-and-twitch walk at ten o'clock but we struggled at first to see many birds at all. When we tallied up, I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had totalled 38 species. Trevor Gunton kept the tally for the day which must have been around the 50 species mark. Highlights for us were green sandpipers and goldeneyes.

The car park was full all day and people parked quite a long way up the Haul Road, so I'm guessing that we had well over a thousand visitors of whom 200 came into the Visitor Centre.
My list for the day was as follows:

1st  Dunnock, robin, blackbird, redwing, herring gull, b-h gull, common gull,
       lb-b gull, shoveller, wigeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, goldeneye, tufted duck,
       pochard, moorhen, coot, grey heron, mute swan, green sandpiper, lapwing,
       crow, jackdaw, wood pigeon, stock-dove, great tit, blue tit, l-t tit, goldcrest, chaffinch,
       buzzard, red kite, pied wagtail, green woodpecker, reed bunting. (Heronry Lakes.)

The car park on New Year's Day.

2nd  Gadwall x 30, shoveller x 11, wigeon x 85, pochard x 33, teal x 47, goldeneye x 13,
        tufted duck x 190, goosander x 4, sparrowhawk, buzzard, water rail, grey wagtail,
        reed bunting x 4, moorhen x 23, common gull x 6, b-h gull x 75, goldfinch x 7.
        (Terry Brown)

3rd  Red legged partridge x 4, green sandpiper. Heronry Lakes. (Alan Coles)

5th  Robin x 3 on bird table, cormorant, wren, blue tit, great tit, dunnock, mute swan.

6th Green sandpiper, goosander. Heronry Lakes. (PC)
      B-h gull x165, common gull x 14, gadwall x 28, shoveller x 11, teal x 48,
      wigeon x 54, pochard x 34, tufted duck x 230, green sandpiper x 4, goosander x 4,
      goldeneye x 9, moorhen x 25, mallard x 30, stock dove x 3, meadow pipit x 3,
      great crested grebe x 10. (Terry Brown)

8th  Greylag goose x 21, mute swan x 8, shoveller x 22, wigeon x 25, mallard x 27,
       teal x 2, pochard x 2, tufted duck x 35, goldeneye x 9, pheasant, stock dove x 52,
       Woodpigeon x 12, moorhen x 18, green sandpiper x 2, b-h gull x 205, herring gull,
       cormorant x33, heron x2, magpie x 9, rook x12, carrion crow x9, blue tit x16,
       robin, blackbird x2, great tit x3, l-t tit x9, dunnock x 4, bullfinch x4, goldfinch x18.
       Heronry Lakes.(R. Mackey)

A pair of gadwall.

10th Snipe on Heronry South plus two on great meadow (MRH and Jim Stevenson)

13th Weather: Dull grey and overcast with the sun trying to poke it's head out without success.
        Tufted duck, cormorant, moorhen, teal, wigeon, pintail, goldeneye x 6,
        goosander, mute swan, green sandpiper x 2 chasing each other around
        in what could be courtship, mallard, black headed gull, herring gull,
        long tailed tit, gt tit, blue tit, blackbird, redwing x 3, grey heron x 3,
        dunnock, wren, robin x 2, magpie, rook,  c crow, jackdaw, wood pigeon
        common buzzard, pheasant, (Paul Lawrence)

Drake wigeon.

13th  Goosander x 2 on river, (also on Heronry North (Ann Thomas) female smew
         and little owl in the quarry. (GR)
         Linnet x 2 and shovellers on river trail. (SAB)

15th  Goosander x 4, gadwall x 20, widgeon x 97, mallard x 19, shoveller x 33, teal x 30,
         tufted duck x 180, goldeneye x 7, pochard x 93, great crested grebe, mute swan x 29,
         moorhen 43, b-h gull x 200, moorhen x 43, common gull x 19, reed bunting x 2,
         grey wagtail, green sandpiper, buzzard, redwing x 4.
         Goosander, sparrow hawk and gadwall on Heronry South. (Colin)

17th  Third Thursday Walk.
          blackbird, b-h gull, blue tit, crow, chaffinch, common gull, cormorant,
          dunnock, gadwall, g-s woodpecker, great tit, green sandpiper, green woodpecker,
          greenfinch, heron, jackdaw, l-t tit, magpie, mallard, moorhen, mute swan,
          pheasant, pied wagtail, red kite, robin, shoveller, song-thrush, teal, tufted duck,
          widgeon, wood pigeon, goldeneye. (32 spp.) David Wilson.
18th  Egyptian Goose on Heronry (Tony Baker)

19th  Red crested pochard, coot, Weedy Pit. Teal, heron, mallard, moorhen, widgeon,
         shoveler, pheasant, chaffinch, robin, blue tit, l-t tit, mute swan, stock dove,
         cormorant, gadwall, buzzard  (JD and PM Gough)
         Bullfinch. (S Longfield)

21st  Gadwall x 23, teal x 55, widgeon x 66, tufted duck x 210, shoveler x 18,
         Pochard x 49, goldeneye x 14, b-h gull x 125, common gull x 10,
         green sandpiper x 4, red kite, treecreeper, little egret, goosander x 2,
         g-c grebe x 10, reed bunting x 4, fieldfare x 3, reed bunting  x 4, fieldfare, muntjac,
         grey squirrel. (Terry Brown)

30th  We spotted a Water Rail at the SW corner of Washout Pit this afternoon
         30th Jan. (Ian and Diana Crosby)

31st  Great white egret over VC. (A&M T)