5th December:
Swathling on the outskirts of Southampton was the first stop
for Stuart, Aubrey and I and when we arrived at the private fishing lakes there
were only two other birders on site. The
site was overlooked by a public open area and thankfully the first winter Night
Heron was sitting fully in the open on the edge of a lone willow looking about
as happy as Marvin the Paranoid Android. It was very subtly marked and had a
moody orange eyes. This was my first in this plumage but the problem is that
they are a total bugger to draw so apologies for the sketch below!
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| Night Heron |
On to Timsbury where the usual male Ring-necked Duck showed well on the island with the Pochard. [Eds: I seem to remember it was a narrow lane with almost no parking and you had to find gaps in the scraggly Hawthorn hedge through which to view the pit and hope that it was not behind the island!]
Tufted Ducks, Little Grebes and Gadwall were also seen. The pagers all suddenly went off with a barrage of news… Lesser Scaup Poole, White-throated Sparrow Lincs and odd December birds like Hoopoes, Black-winged Stilts, Barred and Yellow-browed Warblers! Stu would not drive the 30 miles to Pool as he twitched the drake Lesser Scaup in Eire last week and was now in a huff so we spent the rest of the day around Wrasebury where 20 Ring-necked Parakeets and a drake Smew obliged. [Eds: you still had to go out to the west of town if you wanted RNPs back then…]
A female Ferruginous Duck was seen well in flight with some
Tufted Ducks and there were several small flocks of smart Mandarins which was
the first time I had seen them in the area despite it being a stronghold. With
that we came home and in keeping with recent tradition Stu overcharged on
petrol!
6th December:
Back down to Poole with Adrian and Tony from Abberton for the
drake Lesser Scaup that had unfortunately buggered off overnight never to be
seen again. The surrounding Sallows held four Chiffchaffs, various Tits,
Siskins and Lesser Redpolls while the Reedmace was being used as lookouts for a
pair of Stonechats but we could not find the Dartford Warblers. The rest of the
day was momentarily enlivened by seeing the Timsbury Ring-necked Duck again.
7th December:
Pete ad I were going for the ASDA Barred Warbler in South
Woodham Ferrers but it got eaten by a cat yesterday so we settled for freezing
to death at Hanningfield Reservoir instead. It was very quiet other than 108
Ruddy Duck, eight Goldeneye and 200 Pintail.
It was the Gulls we had come for and careful sifting
produced a Common Gull with yellowish eyes, variously plumaged and races of Lesser Black-backed
Gulls and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. What we and others were looking for was
an odd Yellow-legged type seen the evening before. Luckily we did find it and noted the dark
eyes, almost clean white head and neat fully banded yellow bill It was quite accentuated, feeling long winged.
Whether this bird was the Armenian race of YLG is open to debate but it was a
striking bird never the less. [Eds: I am not sure if this bird even got
submitted at the time but I have certainly not seen such a good candidate since
then]
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| Armenian Gull?? |
19th December:
The long drive up to Market Rasen in Lincolnshire was punctuated
by vast flocks of roadside Lapwings and once on site we did not have to wait
long for the 1st winter White-throated Sparrow to appear and perform
under its chosen Dunnock infested hedge around a small holding within the
Forestry Commission land. Plumage wise it was not quite what I expected being
very neat and nicely marked. The brightness of the loral spot was surprising.
It spent most of its time shuffling around on the ground much in the manner of
a Dunnock and we heard it give a plaintive tsip call in flight.
A lovely flock of some 40 Lesser Redpolls were feeding on the
frost covered Fat Hen seed heads behind an old Sprout field. Every single bird
we saw was ringed including the Sparrow.
Four Bullfinches fed high up in the Larches in an Crossbill-like manner.
After a couple of hours we left feeling vindicated at the
long journey and Roy (seemingly recovered from his session in the Ponders End
bar last night) was especially pleased having not been around for the Trimley
bird.
On to Covenham Reservoir – a God forsaken site that appears
to have simply fallen out of the sky over a particularly bleak piece of North
Lincs complete with blue-green algae, fluorescent orange buoys and dinky dinghies.
The Red-necked Grebe was in attendance with a small flotilla of diving ducks
and lots of sparkling Goldeneye. A Yellow-legged Gull was seen and we made
Julian’s day but finding him his first Grey Wagtail of 1992 which was one less
than his White-throated Sparrow total!
We now set off back cross country to North Hykeham pits on
the outskirts of Lincoln. Here we stood for the rest of the day in the hope
that the Kumlein’s Gull would return to roost.
It did not and after 90 minutes we were more concerned about which part
of our anatomy would drop off first as it was so cold. A leucistic Black-head Gull
and two dark Common Gulls were the scant highlights. A raft of 33 Goosander were my first of the
winter and 100 Stock Doves flew over in one flock.
The journey home included a humungous Little Chef but when we
got back to Harlow, Roy’s Mini refused to start and we had to sit in the cold
for another 90 minutes freezing off whatever we had left attached from Hykeham.
To make matters worse the temperature dropped further and rain became sleet. Thankfully
a jump start was all we needed to get finally home.
20th December:
A late morning visit to Lackford produced nothing surprising
with 14 Goldeneye, two Ruddy Duck, four Goosander and a pair of Wigeon while
Cavenham Heath was alive with Rabbits and just a Sparrowhawk and luminous Green
Woodpecker on the bird front.
27th December:
My first visit to The Chase in a while produced the hoped
for two Long-eared Owls and a scurrying Water Rail in the reeds beneath them. The
Firecrest was still around and two Tree Sparrows were the first I had seen
there in a while. After lunch I went
with Mum and dad to Fairlop Waters where the female Scaup was quickly found.
The surrounding fields were full of Lapwing and Golden Plover. I met up with Alan Bell and swapped cars and
headed up to Amwell with him for the fine male Red Crested Pochard and two pair
of Smew. Three Kingfishers made it all a surprisingly worthwhile day.
[Eds: And so 1992 ended with my 3rd year
breaking the 300 mark although only just this time with 305 and about 18 lifers
to keep my list ticking along. It was
the year of the Warbler with six new additions of which Ruppell’s has not occurred
since, five new waders and species like Yellow-breasted Bunting and Little
Shearwater that I may never see in the UK again. I will warn you now that 1993
was not quite as exciting and my journal writing suffered for some reason but
there will still be Thirty Years Ago posts!]
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