Life, and by that I mean work and a bad back, largely paused birding in the latter half of the month. Whilst my tartan birding notebook records 10 dates, the second half of the month felt like a calm, sometimes birdless seawatch.
Two dates relate to non-birding trips; the first a late-morning, 2.5hr walk with my wife on the 3rd to Chislet Marshes. Highlights were a great white egret and a mixed-flock of wintering finches and buntings. The second non-birding date, on the 8th related to a half-way meet-up with my uncle and aunt to pick up a chess board and pieces that had belonged to an uncle who died last year. The most obvious location between our house and Colchester was RSPB Rainham, where we enjoyed coffee and conversation whilst the heavens outside opened. Out of the windows, winter duck and waders were on show, as well as a distant spoonbill.
Four dates relate to trips of one hour or less. On the 3rd I watched the sun rise at Grove, on the 10th I watched the sun rise whist sea watching at Reculver Towers, on the 14th I watched the sun rise during a morning walk at Minnis Bay, and on the 17th I watched the sunset during my first ‘owling’ visit of 2022. Highlights included purple sandpiper, Bewick’s swan and brown hare emerging as darkness fell.
As you might have guessed by now, I enjoy watching the sun rise and set. However, I don’t like the rude shock of an alarm early in the day, which might be why late afternoon birding trips are not uncommon, as was the case on the 9th during a two hour trip to Grove. Idling back from watching water pipit and watching harriers come into roost is one of the benefits of living in East Kent.
Whilst my four hours birding on the 1st were a definite highlight, finding cattle egret, white-fronted goose and ruff on the patch, another highlight was revisiting the mixed flock of farmland finches and buntings I first found on the 3rd with Sarah. I spent an hour watching them on the 16th, during a two hour late afternoon stroll. In total, I recorded c. 20 corn bunting, 20-30 yellowhammer, 10-20 reed bunting and 150+ chaffinch in one field. Another flock of c. 20 corn bunting had flown past in a different area of the marshes as I arrived and a male marsh harrier had cruised past, as it quartered over winter stubble.
A twitch on the 2nd, when I also found two fly-by red-breasted mergansers, brings the total up to the 10 January dates. This only leaves the last day of the month, when during a work-related visit to Essex, a red kite drifted low over us, whilst a small flock of yellowhammer and skylark lifted up in front of us. A lovely way to end the month.
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