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.