A New Year

 New year resolution (sort of) is to try and keep a bit more up to date here. Will see how it goes.

After a longish break I got to see Colin in the early hours of the New Year. As on previous occasions, we decided on a modest start and tour the fens rather than hit the very busy coast. This would hopefully make a nice stress free day with a reasonable chance of getting home at a sensible time.

The first stop at Pyemore viaduct was a bit of an eye opener. Despite the mild forecast, the wind was rather chilly and I regretted leaving my big coat at home. However it was quite a pleasant half hour or so. There were two Barn Owls hunting the bank just south of us, and despite being completely unprepared and with the wrong camera settings managed to get a couple of decent images.

The usual selection of wildfowl were on the washes, with a few Whooper Swans near the village. There were huge numbers of Lapwings flying around and a few thrushes but hardly any small farmland birds-this has been a feature of recent weeks and now doubt is the consequence of the big freeze in early December.

A stop off at the A1101 bridge failed to produce the large number of egrets that we saw last year. The water levels were too high. Again, large numbers of Lapwing in the air, more wildfowl and a few thrushes and tits in the trees. Facing north, we didn't see a Short Eared Owl approaching behind us at not much more than head hight. I completely fumbled the camera due to the shock as it flew over and away towards the bank. Thinking that was it we drove off and up to Welney. We were incredibly lucky though, as we refound it on a roadside post, stopped in time and I wound the window down and fired a frame filling sequence from around ten feet.

Welney was a bit quiet. While there were a few swans in front of the main hide, there was little else and we wondered how the midday feed would fare. Apart from the vast numbers of Lapwing, the only waders were around 80 Black Tailed Godwits on one of the islands. A walk around Lady Fen produced a large flock of Golden Plovers and 2-3 Short Eared Owls though they stayed distant. One each of Little and Great White Egrets added some interest, but apart from a couple of Linnets and a distant Snipe the best birds remained around the car park with decent numbers of House and Tree Sparrows.

After a bite and plenty of coffee we stopped off near Wissington Beet Factory where a small herd of Whooper Swans contained for Tundra Bean Geese. Too far for photos.

The final stop was near Thorney Toll on the Nene Washes. The beet fields held an enormous herd of Whoopers, with estimates that day of around 1600 which i felt to be an under estimate. I have since learned that the farmer reckons on around 4000 birds. In among them were a few Bewicks, but trying to find them was a nightmare as all the swans had muddy beaks. Fortunately a couple flew over calling which was handy. There were a few Pink Feet as well which were a bit easier to see.

I ended the day with a decent count of 60 species. The following day, a stroll around Fairlands Valley with Tony Hukin added  another 13 species to the year list, though I missed several that were seen by others.