New Year's Day Birding

Saturday January 1 2022 

In 1994, I produced a month by month year record of birds on my PC. In 2007, I had to add a second page, which ended in 2021. I thought that I was being unrealistic and rather optimistic when I typed in those dates. Here we are, a new sheet needed for 2022 onwards. Brilliant. 

Come rain or shine, we have always birded on January 1st, adding as many birds as we can. We've never made a 100, 97 is our record count. Today was definitely not going to come any where near that number. Good weather, unseasonably warm at 14C, and a lot of sun had encouraged staycationers out in force. 

Selbrigg was the first stop. Food scattered, we waited. And waited. For half an hour. The only bird we saw was a Blue Tit . We were kept interested and amused by the blink and you've missed it visits of a minute mouse.All my photos are of blurred movement. Time to go, we turned to face Holt to see two Jays on the gate opposite and a Nuthatch on the post. We had heard the latter earlier.

 

Mute Swan family on the water and one Coot. Two Moorhens scuttled into the undergrowth. Not a complete disaster.

The weedy field and hedgerow at the start of the back lane to Abbey Farm held over a hundred Fieldfare and Redwing, mostly the former. Leaving them to feed in peace, nothing more was added until we got to The Wash.

We were lulled by Snettisham's initial lack of both birders and walker. We were probably too early for them, as it built up as we were leaving. A reasonable variety of waders on the list, the biggest surprise being three Avocets, usually long gone south. Goldeneyes on the last pit, plus the ever growing mass of Greylag.

As soon as we joined the main coast road, we had to crawl into a queue of still or slow-moving cars. This queue lasted all the way into Hunstanton - which was teeming. The only other birding stops we made before giving up and driving home were: 

at Brancaster Staithe which was beautifully empty of cars and people. The tide was at it's nadir. We added Grey Plover, Turnstone and Ringed Plover, Wigeon, Teal and Black-tailed Godwit.

and Holkham Park A149 gateway. From here - a car pulled out as we arrived - we saw a Great Egret fly by, Eurasian White-fronted Geese, Egyptian Geese and dozens of Shoveller.

Lady Anne's drive was cordoned off, a gatekeeper opening and shutting the gate as he thought fit. Titchwell  also had full signs in place. Pam took one look at the cars parked along the approach road down to Stiffkey Marsh, before turning round and driving to Cley. We'd seen Red Kite, Kestrel and Buzzard but no Marsh Harrier. Maybe Cley would oblige.

We managed to park opposite the pool on Eye Field in order to scrutinise the Brent Geese flock. No luck. The car park was chokka, even down the centre. Back to the geese. This time, Pam found a possible Black Brant, but we were not convinced. The sides were white enough, other distinguishing features were not convincing enough. We didn't see a Marsh Harrier either.

Our main January aim is to see as many birds difficult to see in other months as possible, with numbers of commoner birds a bonus. The list of common birds not seen today is ludicrous, including Great Tit, Wren, Dunnock and Pied Wagtail. Pam's first bird of the day was a calling Tawny Owl heard when she was dealing with the moth traps. It didn't call again. A singing Robin was mine.

We still had a lovely day, despite the list total of 63 - it was 73 last year. All the more to see in the rest of the month.