January has been a very good month for birding with two trips to south coast reserves with several visits to my local patch, Moor Green Lakes.
However, the biggest surprise that I had was a female Kingfisher that visited my garden pond on the 19th January. It had perched on a stone frog next to the pond and was eyeing up the fish, which unfortunately for her, were much too big.
When I first noticed it, I had to double take at what I was looking at, as this species was somewhat out of it's natural environment.
It flew off after about thirty seconds, obviously deciding that the visit was going to be unsuccessful.
It came back the next day and again on the 27th, to try it's luck again, but quickly decided there were no small fish in the pond and flew away.
During it's second visit, I set the camera up, focussed on the stone frog. As luck would have it, the bird flew into the garden and perched on top of the stone frog and I was able to get a photo, fantastic.
On the 17th, I went to Farlington on a very windy day. There were large flocks of Brent Geese (+1,500), Starling (+2,000) , Shelduck (400) and Avocet (40) on the marshes.
One Bearded tit, briefly put in an appearance, as it dived into the reed bed and out of site. They tend not to like the wind and stay hidden deep in the reed beds, so to see it was a bonus.
The 30th at Keyhaven/Pennington turned out to be one of those days when everything came together, the quality and numbers of birds seen, the weather conditions, which were perfect, sunny, with hardly any wind, excellent visibility and light traffic both there and back.
The birds seen were, Marsh Harrier, Mediterranean Gull, White Fronted Goose, Common Eider, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-necked Grebe, Avocet, Peregrine, Dartford Warbler, Golden Plover and Spotted Redshank. A great day at my favourite birding site.
However, the biggest surprise that I had was a female Kingfisher that visited my garden pond on the 19th January. It had perched on a stone frog next to the pond and was eyeing up the fish, which unfortunately for her, were much too big.
When I first noticed it, I had to double take at what I was looking at, as this species was somewhat out of it's natural environment.
It flew off after about thirty seconds, obviously deciding that the visit was going to be unsuccessful.
It came back the next day and again on the 27th, to try it's luck again, but quickly decided there were no small fish in the pond and flew away.
During it's second visit, I set the camera up, focussed on the stone frog. As luck would have it, the bird flew into the garden and perched on top of the stone frog and I was able to get a photo, fantastic.
On the 17th, I went to Farlington on a very windy day. There were large flocks of Brent Geese (+1,500), Starling (+2,000) , Shelduck (400) and Avocet (40) on the marshes.
One Bearded tit, briefly put in an appearance, as it dived into the reed bed and out of site. They tend not to like the wind and stay hidden deep in the reed beds, so to see it was a bonus.
The 30th at Keyhaven/Pennington turned out to be one of those days when everything came together, the quality and numbers of birds seen, the weather conditions, which were perfect, sunny, with hardly any wind, excellent visibility and light traffic both there and back.
The birds seen were, Marsh Harrier, Mediterranean Gull, White Fronted Goose, Common Eider, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-necked Grebe, Avocet, Peregrine, Dartford Warbler, Golden Plover and Spotted Redshank. A great day at my favourite birding site.
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