Early February 2009
Tuesday, 10th February 09:
Hayter, Spellbrook (west):
we were 35 mins late for work due to flooding today!
Spellbrook Lane West was suddenly the main route from Sawbridgeworth to Stortford and was a complete nigjtmare with the last 200 yards taking us around 20 minutes.
- Cormorant 3 - Over South-West at 0805 Hrs. One bird was in breeding plumage and clearly of the race sinensis
Monday, 9th February 09:
Honeysuckle Close, Bishops Stortford:
- Fieldfare 2 - in the garden at 0700 Hrs! One taking position to guard apples, as per yesterday.
Hayter, Spellbrook (west):
- MEADOW PIPIT 2 - In trees with Goldfinch on Hayter land! This is an unusual sighting for me here even though they are common at Trims Green just a few hunderd yards away. Sometimes they can be heard calling in the distance from Hayters north-west field or over during migration tho I don't recall ever having any stationary birds within the Hayter perimeter :-)
Trims Green:
- Stonechat 0 - speed-birdwatching in the car at lunchtime around all the recent hotspots returned a zero count :-(
Sunday, 8th February 09:
Not everyday I get this close to Fieldfare... our new resident garden bird.
Honeysuckle Close:
- Fieldfare 2 in the garden today, with one almost a constant feature, defending apples from all who would try their luck.
Trims Green:
- STONECHAT 2 - Male and Female at the pillbox just North-West of Blounts Farm.
Rye Meads:
Mostly frozen
- Bullfinch 4
- Treecreeper 2 - amongst tit flock
- Shoveler - lots among the wintering duck
Lea Navigation (between Rye Meads and Amwell NR):
- Gadwall 2
- Greylag - only a single amongst the Canada Geese
- Great Crested Grebe 1 - fishing along beside the canal boats
- Siskin 18 (11, 7) - all in Alders
- Grey Wagtail 1
Amwell NR:
- Shellduck 1
- Buzzard 2
- Common Snipe 6
- Goldeneye 4 (prob more)
- Water Rail 3 showing at Amwell viewpoint
- Gulls - All five common species present (Yellow-leg seen by others with Glaucous at dusk making 7 species at Amwell today)
- Goldcrest 6(7)
- Sparrowhawk 1 - imm. male (not merlin) very low infront of viewpoint within poking distance of unaware birders
- Wrens - proportionally few heard today
Two of six Common Snipe at Amwell and a male Siskin on the lea navigation.
Two ringed Mallard at Rye Meads and a VERY long distance Common Buzzard from the viewpoint.
Male and Female Reed Bunting from Amwell viewpoint and a Grey Wagtail on the navigation.
Really pleased with my photos today... they are all best viewed in a larger size via my links page...
...except the ringed mallard and buzzard which are poor record shots.
Saturday, 7th February 09:
Honeysuckle Close, Bishops Stortford:
- Fieldfare 29 minimum birds noted from our window. They were hanging about in the surrounding streets looking for anthing they could get. We managed a total of three birds within the garden fence with one staying all day to bicker with blackbirds over halved apples. This is a delighful opportunity for me to see a shy species within only a few feet.
Stortford Park Farm:
East
- Fieldfare 46
- Redwing 6 only
- Stockdove 3
- Mistle Thrush 3
- Green Woodpecker 1 only, again
- Blue Tit 25+
- Great Tit 4 only
- Greenfinch 8
- Goldfinch 3
- Chaffinch 4
- Starling c.40
- Fox 1
oddly absent: Long-tailed Tit, Linnet + Goldcrest
West
- Little Owl - flew from favoured tree, allowing a VERY distand record shot
- complete absence of last weeks finch/bunting/lark flocks
Green Woodpecker and Little Owl
Friday, 6th February 09:
Around junction just North of Tharbies Farm beside Trims Green [TL 469 163]
- STONECHAT - Male seen twice ( 1315 hrs and 1615 hrs ) Our first decent find on one of our newest routes to/from work.
Thursday, 5th February 09:
Spellbrook (west):
Seeing what the local mammals have been up to, by following their footprints, is often part of my lunchbreaks during any given working week. Snow makes this easy and is a great way to find out who shares your patch when you're not there.
These were taken today and yesterday
A: Rabbit, B: Fox, C: Pheasant, D: Brown Rat, E: Blackbird and F: Badger
(Muntjac photos were all in mud and didn't look right among the snow shots)
Wednesday, 4th February 09:
Look closely... there are at least 122 Goldfinch in this photo.
This is prob only half of the Hayter bikeshed roost (Spellbrook[west])... and we've not got onto Greenfinch yet!
Trims Green:
Well worth stopping at the usual fly-by spot at Trims today. I got out at Rhino/Morris entrance at 0710 hrs to scan the trees around the new farm building and immeadietly heard one of TWO GREY PARTRIDGE calling. I crept back into the car and Steve drove 60 yards further up the road towards Spellbrook so I could get a definite visual ID. They didn't seem to mind the car and carried on scratching in the snow despite only being c.15 yards away... A little more light and I would have tried for a photo but it may be a while before it's light enough for me to get any half-decent shots before work :-) A SUPERB start to the day as there can often be months between my grey Partridge sightings. YL#102
Goldfinch slightly outnumbering Magpie
Tuesday, 3rd February 09:
A few photos from the shelter:
Usual Blackbird, House Sparrow and Chaffinch
Honeysuckle Close:
- Blackbirds 12 - all down to our postage stamp at once. I was stunned the other day when we recorded 8!
Hayter, Spellbrook (west):
- Kestrel 1
- Green Woodpecker 1 Male
- COAL TIT - Still (unusually) coming down to feeders
- Songthrush - singing at the smoking shelter daily
- Chaffinch 1 - singing as above
+ all the usual suspects
Monday, 2nd February 09:
Snow, Snow and more Snow!
REDWING 38 (+) - and all before starting work... quite a contrast to the recent Fieldfare-fest.
- 7 minimum - North over my house before first light
- 14 minimum North-East over Sainsburys Garage
- 17 (6, 3, 8) all west over Hayter in West Spellbrook
River Stort at Wallbury:
Hayter, Spellbrook (west):
- Finch Roosts - Goldfinch and Greenfinches still everywhere from 1530 Hrs!
Intresting to try my hand at photographing a different subject matter.
TOP PHOTO: Thorley Wash / Wallbury footbridge looking North up the River Stort
BELOW: a couple of scenes from just North-West of Trims Green
Sunday, 1st February 09:
Stortford Park Farm (West):
- Skylark c.70 - South-West of SPF entrance roundabout at TL 466 213
- Yellowhammer and Chaffinch - Mixed flock of around 350 birds didn't appear to house any Brambling tho it was heavy going without any scope... one of the times they pulled up in the trees i thought there may have been 3 or 4 Corn Bunting sharing a branch with Yellowhammer but i'm really not 100% sure as i couldn't relocate these birds amongst the masses during the next half hour.
- Grey Heron 1 - heading low, north up bypass... just taken off?
- Meadow Pipit 2
Stortford Park Farm (East):
- Jay 2
- Bullfinch 2
- Snowdrops - Open, just 30 yards from Winter Aconite!
- Green Woodpecker 1
- Greenfinch 6
- NO Redwing, Fieldfare or Linnet