Scaup

Scaup on a private reservoir in West Sussex in January; owners requested no location/info be made public, bird gone now unfortunately..

Puffin & Little Owl

 Two good birds today: a Puffin at the Bill & a Little Owl at North Wall. Surprisingly, over the last few years I have seen more of the former than the latter which tells its own tale of the decline of Little Owls in the area...

Merlin

A look at the Medmerry trail was productive this morning with literally the first bird spotted being a Raven with the other highlight a flyby Merlin, both nice additions to the year list. At the Ferry, the Long tailed Duck was asleep on the far bank, still a hood deal closer than the ones at the Bill!

Patchwork

 A few good birds around Oving recently including up to 12 Cattle Egrets in the Drayton area, a large flock of Fieldfares at Woodhorn Farm and, the piece de resistance, a garden tick of two flyover Egyptian Geese! Last night a hooting Tawny Owl was also good to hear!

Ducks

 An excellent selection of ducks over the last few days at Selsey: Scoter, Velvets, Eider (majestic imho), Mergs, LT Ducks, Wigeon, Teal and Pintail all on the move. With Goosander now on the list as well not been a bad year at all for my favourite species.

The Bill

 

Greater Short-toed Lark & more

 A week in Pembrokeshire, whilst a fabulous family break, was poor for birding: no chats/warblers/migrant birds of any description and just a few Kestrels on the raptor front- not even a Red Kite. Seawatching was slow with the much vaunted Strumble Head (where I was often the only birder-they don't watch daily here...) being ok for Gannets. Kittiwakes and Manx Shearwaters but not a lot else until the final day when a Sooty Shearwater offshore brightened things up.. Other glimmers of interest were a self found Sabine’s Gull after Monday's storm in with the hundreds of Manx at St. Brides, a Storm Petrel offshore later in the week and a Greater Short-toed Lark at Dale airfield. Annoyingly our pelagic was cancelled in dubious circumstances-guess it doesn't  pay enough when you can take boatloads of grockles round Ramsey…Lovely accommodation and all that but the west country booked for next year!