29th Jan 2023

Friday afternoon a pair of Peregrine flew over towards town, there was at least one Redpoll in the finch flock along the river and c.65 Greylag Geese came in to roost as it got dark (too dark to get an accurate count). There was at least 3 ringed Black-headed Gulls stood on the railings. One had only a metal ring but the 2 with darvic rings were from Norway (white ring J0913) and the West Midlands (black ring 2HLJ).

Fairly standard Saturday morning, but there was a pair of Sparrowhawk displaying over the wood and c.300 Lapwings over the valley.

This morning with JFT, the Greylags had been in overnight again and I saw c.45-50 before they left, but as they were already leaving in small groups when I arrived I expect there were more. A flock of c.510 Lapwing flew over the reservoir and then back up to the UCV, where we later saw smaller groups up a few times. The Sparrowhawks were displaying again. There was a Gadwall and female Stonechat at the Borrow Pit and a Raven over. We had 4 Snipe and a Jack Snipe and Woodcock in their usual locations. Also a Redpoll again, briefly, along the river as we were leaving.

This evening Mike Pollard recorded an adult Yellow-legged Gull.

22nd Jan 2023

Thursday morning Mike Pollard saw several Siskins, including 2 males singing, and Adrian B had a female Peregrine over.

Saturday morning Kirsty had a female Stonechat up by the Borrow Pit pool and later I had 2 Gadwall at the reservoir.

This morning the Gadwall were still there and there was a single Teal in amongst the gulls in the middle of the mostly frozen reservoir. There was also 3 Egyptian Geese in the fields up the valley.

Siskin courtesy and copyright of Edwin Barson
https://www.facebook.com/EBarsonphotography/

15th Jan 2023

Monday morning Wally had a Wigeon at the reservoir and on Thursday Adrian T. saw c.1000 Lapwing and 25 Golden Plover over the UCV.

On Saturday Mike Pollard found an Egyptian Goose on the UCV floods, outside of/not viewed from the patch.

This morning there was very little of note at the reservoir or up the valley. I scanned for plovers and the goose but couldn't see any. A little later in the morning c.30 Lapwing did fly over south so there are still some around but possibly further north and quite a way from the patch area. I had several Snipe in the usual field and a Water Rail calling from the flooded reedy area near the river.

8th Jan 2023: Kittiwake!

Happy New Year all and good birding!

The year started off pretty well with an adult Kittiwake present early on the 2nd. That is the first one we've had since 2019, at which point we'd had at least one for five years in a row! Some other good bits were seen on the 2nd too with Raven, Little Egret and Yellowhammer all being good early additions to the year list.

Wednesday morning 3 Gadwall, that were on the Borrow Pit on Monday, were on the reservoir and there was a Chiffchaff along the river. A female Stonechat was up by the Borrow Pit and in the flooded grass nearby there was 52 Pied Wagtails. A flock of Lapwing were over the valley again and checking photos there was 118 birds. I also had a Skylark over.

Friday morning I had c.250 Lapwing in flight high over the reservoir, most of which went back north to the UCV but some broke off and went south. There was also 2 (possibly 3) Chiffchaff with 1 in the wood, 1 in the scrub on the western side of the reservoir and 1 seen by John the dog walker along the river.

Sunday Clive and I did the B.O.S. short day count in SP44 and naturally we started at the reservoir and up the valley. We had 2 Gadwall and a Tufted Duck at the reservoir, 2 Stonechat up the valley and a Yellowhammer over. We called back in later and had a brief visit from a Yellow-legged Gull.