Feeding in the garden 16th Dec.

An afternoon feeding frenzy took place in the back garden, with wood pigeons, blackbirds, blue tits and great tits feasting upon the cherries on the garden tree. Perhaps a sign of the forecast cold spell.

Wintering merlin seen again: 16th Dec.

The wintering merlin, first seen in mid October, was observed, briefly, on Ash Valley Golf Course, flying past the club house. It came across the putting green and then used a ditch to "get under the radar" of any finches that may be in the hedgerow along the side of the first hole.

Norfolk birding: Tuesday 14th Dec

Tuesday 14th Dec and a day trip to North Norfolk. Leaving Stortford at 5.00am in order to be on the reserve and beach at Cley for first light. First birds of note were a spoonbill and several thousand brent geese. A walk along the beach gave great views of snow bunting whilst ruff, dunlin, ringed plover and a curlew were found at Arnold's Marsh, east of the reserve. A coffee before heading into the hides where we saw plenty of expected duck before a trip to Salthouse beach for turnstone and a very confiding dunlin. From here we were off to Stiffkey Fen where kingfisher, greylag geese, a single pink footed goose, bullfinch. A goldcrest and marsh tit were heard but not observed. Then, on to Titchwell were a sea watch gave great views of common scoter (600+), 2 velvet scoter, 6 red breasted merganser, 5 goldeneye, 4 great crested grebe, 1 great northern diver, sanderling, bar tailed godwit along with merlin, hen harrier and peregrine over Thornham Marsh.
In all, 90 species for the day. Excellent stuff. Photos so far attached, from the top:

• Cley Reserve North Scrape at first light: mainly shelduck and wigeon
• Looking west towards Salthouse at first light
• avocets, wigeon and shoveler on the North Scrape
• looking west at dawn
• next 3: snow buntings on the shingle, Cley beach
• flyover brent goose
• common gull
• dunlin
• black headed gull
• turnstone: a confiding 1st year bird. Can be distinguished from an adult by the white tips to the feathers.
• small flock of brent geese.

Bishop's Stortford waxwings: 12.12.10

I received a report of several waxwings discovered in rowan trees in Primrose Close, Bishop's Stortford, so today, I spent a little time finding them and getting a few record photos. They were exactly as reported only their numbers had swollen to 20+. A super bird to see; they arrive in the UK from eastern Scandinavia every 4 - 5 years, usually due to a combination of poor berry crops in their breeding range coupled with a successful breeding season. This is indeed the case for 2010, with up to 10,000 arriving here from across the North Sea.

Judging by the amount of rowan and cotoneaster on the Bishop's Park estate, I suspect they will be present for a fortnight or so. Also discovered whilst watching these was a solitary lesser redpoll. I received a phone call later letting me know that the number had swollen to 3 redpolls. Hope the residents of Primrose Close are not too bothered by numbers of birders and photographers wandering around!

Sunday Morning Walk 12.12.10

A start at Tescos and then followed the footpaths around Stocking Wood, Bury Green to Acreman Street and then back to the village via Ford Hill. Not too much to record, 26 species in all with a winter party of 12 yellowhammers observed near Great Hadham G.C. Also, 5 bullfinches opposite Acremans house by the footpath gate, 1 flyover black headed gull, 2 lesser black backed and a solitary 2nd year herring gull.

3 photos attached show some distant shots of the bullfinches.

Hard frost: 7.12.10

Very cold morning, with these garden shots being taken around 7.30a.m. Thermometer read

-5C. Resident birds already at the feeders, with chaffinch, great, blue and coal tits present along with blackbirds, starlings, house sparrows and jackdaws. Good numbers of black headed gulls lazed their way north along the Ash Valley

A cold wander to start the week

A wander around the east side of the parish this morning gave up little apart from usual residents. A flock of 15 long tailed tits, mixed with several great and blue tits were good to see as well as a feeding party of 34 redwings. These were feasting on hawthorns. A common buzzard called but was not seen, as was a great spotted woodpecker. Several black headed gulls headed north, but the freezing fog and minus temperatures made it a morning to be on the move and not one to spend 15 minutes trying for a good photo. Corvids seemed to be keeping warm by constant fly pasts and 8 fieldfares were feeding on the frozen polo fields. An early morning search for local barn owls drew a blank, but some recent pellets will encourage me to return to one favoured site later this afternoon.

Amwell visit: 4.12.10

A midday visit to Amwell Nature Reserve in Hertfordshire, between Ware and Stansted Abbotts was a worthwhile trip. Foggy and cold, with snow still on the ground meant I was expecting a good movement of birds, with specific winter visitors being observed.

This was indeed the case, with 2 smew, a pair of goosanders, a pair of pintail and 2 mandarins being observed. Over 5 snipe were feeding near the viewing point along with 8 moorhens. A study of Hardmead Lake through the scope gave distant views of 2 female goldeneyes, plenty of great crested grebes and tufted ducks, shoveler, pochard, mallard and cormorant all counted in excess of 30. 3 red crested pochard were on nearby Hollycross Lake along with a solitary female ruddy duck. In nearby trees over 30 siskins were first heard and then seen. Finally, a quick visit along the footpath to Tumbling Bay gave views of a single female goosander on the water with 50+ tufted duck and pochard.

A raptor was seen being mobbed by jackdaws; this turned out to be a harris hawk, an escaped local resident.

Finally, as the light began to fail the gull roost began to increase with lesser black backed, herring, common and black headed gulls numbering over 200.

Photos show the gulls on the ice, the pair of goosanders heading north, pintail pair and a couple of a cormorant that was clearly not well and probably had a broken wing.

Garden surprise 4.12.10

Looked out of the window this morning so find an unusual visitor perched on the chapel roof at the bottom of the garden: a grey heron, shown here.

The seed and peanut feeders continue to attract great, blue and coal tits along with chaffinches, blackbirds, robins, house sparrows and dunnocks.

Another day off! 2nd Dec

Another enforced day off due to weather conditions as Ash Valley Golf Club is closed. Hence, another morning walk in search of the elusive 100th bird species. Still no success. However, good numbers of skylarks (20+) were observed near the golf club. The bird of the day was undoubtedly a chiffchaff; one of several that now over winter in the UK. Bet it regrets its decision. This rare sighting was found along the footpath off Chapel Lane. Other birds were all the regulars, with 4 bullfinches at Westland Green, 5 cock pheasants together, good numbers of fieldfares (40+), redwings (25) and blackbirds (75) The house sparrow colony at Home Farm appears to be flourishing, with over 20 hanging around the farmyard along with goldfinches and chaffinches.

Photos show a male house sparrow and 3 local views.