Final Festive Fling

 

Carsington Christmas

18th September 2016

Sorry Pam - we are all much too

busy eating to look at the camera!

  

10am saw us gathered at Carsington for a final fling before Christmas making it a December double - Pam could obviously smell the bacon from Wirksworth and arrived in time to join us and take on the role of official photographer. Alison is off skiing and sadly Lynn couldn't join us but she is very much in our thoughts, hopefully we will all be able to get together in January.

 

All set for a quick stint of birding - someone is sporting full twitching gear!

 

After testing our brains with a game of spot and name the ex-student and fuelled by our full English breakfasts and lashings of tea and coffee we donned our boots and binoculars and set off to see what we could spot.

 

Excitement is building as we approach

90 feathered friends!

 

It's over there, no it's over there!

 

Pam discovered that the main reason that she was getting her birds in a muddle was due to incorrect binocular operation, so a quick tutorial from Helen J soon had her spotting like a pro.

 

Looking Ruff!

 

Make sure you spell it correctly Jo!

 

We headed to the hide where we joined the professionals and were able to warm up a bit. Maggie used her charms on the twitches but it turned out that we had spotted more than them - even with one member of our group looking through the wrong end of her binoculars!(I won't make any mention of tit of the year here!)

We all fell in love with the willow tits which gave us a  lovely performance flitting between the bushes and the bird table.

 

Drongo?? - if the cap fits.......

 

Lovely Lapwings

 

So here is the list:

barnacle geese

black headed gull

blackbird

blue tit

bullfinch

bullfinch

buzzard

canada goose

chaffinch

chiffchaff

coal tit

collared dove

common gull

common tern

coot

cormorant

crow

dipper

dunlin*

dunnock

egyptian geese

fieldfare

gadwall

golden-eye

goldfinch

goosander

great crested grebe

great northern diver*

great tit

greater black backed gull*

greater spotted woodpecker

greenfinch

grey heron

grey wagtail

greylag geese

hawfinch*

herring gull

house martin

house sparrow

jackdaw

jay

kestrel

kingfisher*

lapwing

little egret

little grebe

long tailed tit

magpie

mallard

mandarin duck*

mistle thrush*

moorhen

mute swan

nuthatch

oystercatcher

pheasant

pied flycatcher*

pied wagtail

pintail

pochard

raven

red crested pochard

redshank

redstart

redwing

reed bunting

robin

rook

ruff*

shelduck

shoveler

siskin*

snipe*

song thrush

sparrowhawk*

starling

swallow

swift*

tawny owl

teal

tree sparrow

treecreeper*

tufted duck

whitethroat

whooper swan

wigeon

willow tit*

woodpigeon

wren

yellow legged gull

 

90 birds running total (target was 85!)

This year 65, including 15 new*

Italics = birds recorded 2014 and 2015 but not 2016

Birds of the year : Great Northern Diver and Hawfinch

Tit of the year: Willow tit