January 2016

A nice selection of images from January.

Common Buzzard on the shore.

 Collared Dove looking forward to spring.

 Cormorant drying it's wings.

 Grey Heron posing.

 Great Northern Diver with a crab.

 Goldcrest - stunning.

 Goosander in a flap.

 Iceland Gull at the hatchery.

 Jackdaw eyeing things up.

 This Knot was a good find in January.

 Little Auks were storm driven but soon moved back out to sea.

 Merlin is usually seen flying off so this sitter was a bit special.

 Plenty of Otter sightings...

 ...and a few cubs around too.

 A few flocks of Redwing are fairly easy to find this winter.

 The sun lights up the landscape as it sets - that's when you see the sun!

 A White-tailed Eagle on a dull day.

 This White-tailed Eagle landed next to the car - fantastic!

Stunned.

Well, here we go with 2013 and a new list. I started early this year with a Barn Owl at 01:30! The weather wasn't too bad between the showers but I never got out of the garden so just a small number of birds seen - only 14 species. Cracking views of Hen Harrier (twice), 2 Golden Eagle, Fieldfare, Redwing and a Tawny Owl at 22:00 were the highlights. The next day was a real stinker with constant rain all day but I had to get something on the list - Buzzard and Grey Heron would do. Those two were the first to be seen and another 12 species took the tally to 30 and not a photo taken! The weather was still pretty gloomy on day 3 but the delights of Teal, Wren, Goldeneye, Collared Dove and Dunnock just have to send you into a frenzy of spotting. I had a cup of tea first! Cup of tea finished and House Sparrow on the list and the next find was bound to be another common bird - how wrong I was. A small speck close to shore looked like nothing interesting until it went under the surface - it was the wrong shape for Little Grebe. Would it reappear, had I imagined it, was it just a bit of seaweed in the gently lapping water? It came back up, binoculars were trained on it and there was Little Auk! I waited for it drift towards me and you could see it was almost as broad...

...as it was long. What a cracking bird!

Other delights on the sea were quite a few GN Divers...

...about 20 RB Mergs scattered along the coast...

...and a curious Rock Pipit that stayed put while I got into position for another shot of the Auk.

It was worth another go - that's made my year already and only 40 species seen!