Me 37 - 70 Not Me...

Some patch days are quiet. Today was VERY quiet. So much so in fact that I had a real feeling that it could well be THE quietest day I’ve had on the patch - ever. Now I tend to keep records of just about everything I can, bird-wise, on the patch and so it didn’t take long to find a spreadsheet with previous December records in. Traditionally I tend to think of Decemeber as a quiet month anyway, but 107 species have turned up in the past at this time of year (see below) and I’ve had all but a handful of these. Today though I got just 37

Barnacle Goose, Bewick’s Swan, Bittern, Blackbird, Black-headed Gull, Blue Tit, Brambling, Bullfinch, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Caspian Gull, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Buzzard, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Common Snipe, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Feral Pigeon, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Glaucous Gull, Goldcrest, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Green Sandpiper, Green Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Partridge, Grey Wagtail, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Iceland Gull, Jack Snipe, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Lapwing, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Lesser Redpoll, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Little Owl, Long-tailed Tit, Long-eared Owl, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mediterranean Gull, Merlin, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Nuthatch, Peregrine, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink-footed Goose, Pintail, Pochard, Raven, Redshank, Redwing, Reed Bunting, Richard’s Pipit, Robin, Rook, Ruddy Duck, Shelduck, Short-eared owl, Shoveler, Siskin, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Stonechat, Tawny Owl, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Treecreeper, Tufted Duck, Twite, Water Rail, Willow Tit, Whooper Swan, Wood Pigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer, Yellow-legged Gull.

I make that 35% of the potential tally. Of course some of the above have occurred only once or twice on the patch during December (e.g. Twite, Richard’s Pipit, Bewick’s Swan) or are not exactly what you’d call predictably ‘getable’ at this time of year (e.g. Goosander, Long-eared Owl, Common Sandpiper etc), but even so...

In fairness the recent freeze still has a grip on the patch, although the tracks at the eastern end of the reserve are beginning to show hints of future mud to come (it's going to be horrendous methinks) and I only did east of Lapwing Lane. The only pond with any open water today was again Birchwood Pool, but even this was too little support many wildfowl (just 2 Shoveler, 1 Teal, 31 Coots and 8 Moorhens). No gulls today on the pools (bar a couple of displaced Herring Gulls) and the rest I saw were either overflying or on the field between the big road bridge over the river by the dump and the eastern river by the Transpennine Way. The Tawny Owl (lovely greyish bird) was showing well in it's tree by the little bridge and was by far and away the best bird of the day. Small stuff was all found initially on call today, which is pretty weird given that stuff ought to have been easy enough to pick up visually now that the leaves have gone. Ah well...

Yes... it WAS indeed a VERY quiet day... but ya know what, still worth the hours and the trudged miles. What can I say... it's my patch :)