Sunday January 11

At Christmas Lyn bought me, among other things, a pair of green socks with large white spots on them. Their debut was December 30, the day of the Barn Owl etc. So I immediately dubbed them my lucky socks. Today was their second outing.

Compared to my previous two visits this year, the weather was pretty good. Sunny and clear with a light to moderate westerly. While I waited for Dave I noticed several parties of large Gulls heading south. This was encouraging, and when Dave pulled up, I was chatting to him about this when three Swans appeared to the south-east of us and headed our way. Had the lucky socks just claimed their first birds? Well yes in a way. They were Mute Swans, not quite what I had hoped for, but still a year tick. Then a flock of 27 Greylag Geese flew over, another year-tick. Our Gull total reached 25 Lesser Black-backs and two Herring Gulls, plus several flocks of silhouettes.

We set off and after a while heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker. They all count. Shortly afterwards the lucky socks took a heavy blow. Dave got a call from work (his cultures were cooking, or something). Evidently the equipment failure which had led to this state of affairs required attending to, and it seemed Dave would need to abort. As he pondered this, he drew my attention to another year-tick, a Coal Tit was flitting through the branches of an ornamental conifer.

Just past the wood, while Dave was on the phone trying to persuade his colleagues to get involved, I was scanning the landscape and added distant Grey Heron and Cormorant. We headed for the owl tree, but there was no sign of it. However, Dave did discover that the pair of Stonechats had not departed as I had believed.

We decided to walk through the marsh, in front of which were about 15 Fieldfares, a few Redwings, and 12 Starlings. We sloshed through the marsh and soon kicked out four Teal, 25 Common Snipe, and eventually eight Jack Snipe. This was a personal triumph for two reasons. My best ever count here, and I actually got photos of them which are identifiable.

Jack Snipe

Another one

Long suffering readers will remember that my photo year list from last year contained a very dodgy dot, which I assure you was a Jack Snipe. This time I can prove they are real.

We arrived at the flashes which contained just the four Teal, and Dave decided he would have to leave. I trudged on without adding a great deal other than these Roe Deer.

Pretty cute. Then I got to the dragonfly pools, where I saw a pretty Coot. Sorry about that. I decided to extend the trip a bit, and headed north to the other pond. There was nothing there as usual, but on the way back the puddles by the slurry dump contained my final year-tick of the day. A Grey Wagtail. 

Grey Wagtail

I just had time to snatch a photo before another Wagtail replaced it.

Pied Wagtail

So the verdict on the socks, lucky for me, pants for Dave. The year-list stands at 60 (it took me until February to get that total last year).