Local Birding

A spot of local birding with Paul F (@frostybirding on twitter) to kick off 2015. We visited a few local sites and managed a decent 62 species in total. First stop was Stockers Farm which although no Little Owl or Stonechat did kick off our "year lists" with 18 species including; Red Kite, Snipe and Sparrowhawk. Then we did a circuit of Stockers Lake which bumped our total up to 42. The most noteworthy being; Siskin, Water Rail, Goldeneye, Nuthatch and the escaped Black Swan. On returning to Stockers Farm we were able to add another 5 species including Mistle Thrush and Redwing. Next stop was Broadwater Gravel Pits where we concentrated our efforts on a short stretch of the river Colne. A presumed Siberian Chiffchaff had been seen here recently and this was our target bird. There were not as many over-wintering Chiffchaff's as expected on this stretch of the Colne but we soon connected with the "Siberian" type with it's white underside quite noticeable even to the naked eye. Our visit to Broadwater took ou total up to 54.
West Hyde was next and the stand out bird(s) here were a flock of 50 plus Golden Plover also double figures of Skylark. A brief visit to Woodoaks Farm added took our final tally for the day to 62 with the addition of Yellowhammer, Collared Dove and Linnet. Day List below. After the list a Golden Plover at West Hyde.

1	:	Ring-necked Parakeet	Stockers Farm
2	:	Magpie	Stockers Farm
3	:	Wood Pigeon	Stockers Farm
4	:	Pied Wagtail	Stockers Farm
5	:	Sparrowhawk	Stockers Farm
6	:	Blackbird	Stockers Farm
7	:	Goldfinch	Stockers Farm
8	:	Blue Tit	Stockers Farm
9	:	Great Tit	Stockers Farm
10	:	Robin	Stockers Farm
11	:	Wren	Stockers Farm
12	:	Mallard	Stockers Farm
13	:	Cormorant	Stockers Farm
14	:	House Sparrow	Stockers Farm
15	:	Chaffinch	Stockers Farm
16	:	Moorhen	Stockers Farm
17	:	Snipe	Stockers Farm
18	:	Red Kite	Stockers Farm
19	:	Siskin	Stockers Lake
20	:	Tufted Duck	Stockers Lake
21	:	Pochard	Stockers Lake
22	:	Goldeneye	Stockers Lake
23	:	Shoveler	Stockers Lake
24	:	Gadwall	Stockers Lake
25	:	Grey Heron	Stockers Lake
26	:	Lesser Black-backed Gull	Stockers Lake
27	:	Herring Gull	Stockers Lake
28	:	Black-headed Gull	Stockers Lake
29	:	Dunnock	Stockers Lake
30	:	Mute Swan	Stockers Lake
31	:	Coot	Stockers Lake
32	:	Wigeon	Stockers Lake
33	:	Carrion Crow	Stockers Lake
34	:	Common Gull	Stockers Lake
35	:	Nuthatch	Stockers Lake
36	:	Song Thrush	Stockers Lake
37	:	Lapwing	Stockers Lake
38	:	Water Rail	Stockers Lake
39	:	Goldcrest	Stockers Lake
40	:	Long-tailed Tit	Stockers Lake
41	:	Great-crested Grebe	Stockers Lake
42	:	Starling	Stockers Lake
43	:	Green Woodpecker	Stockers Farm
44	:	Mistle Thrush	Stockers Farm
45	:	Redwing	Stockers Farm
46	:	Jackdaw	Stockers Farm
47	:	Canada Goose	Stockers Farm
48	:	Chiffchaff	Broadwater Gravel Pits
49	:	Siberian Chiffchaff	Broadwater Gravel Pits
50	:	Grey Wagtail	Broadwater Gravel Pits
51	:	Kingfisher	Broadwater Gravel Pits
52	:	Jay	Broadwater Gravel Pits
53	:	Little Egret	Broadwater Gravel Pits
54	:	Fieldfare	Broadwater Gravel Pits
55	:	Pheasant	West Hyde
56	:	Kestrel	West Hyde
57	:	Golden Plover	West Hyde
58	:	Skylark	West Hyde
59	:	Meadow Pipit	West Hyde
60	:	Yellowhammer	Woodoaks Farm
61	:	Collared Dove	Woodoaks Farm
62	:	Linnet	Woodoaks Farm