January 2008

Birds, insects, flowers and fungi. It has been a long, exciting year with plenty of trips out into the wild providing countless new species for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and very much look forward to next year!!
It all started back in January (funnily enough!) when we were on the Isle of Wight with Granny and Grandad. Dad and I headed down to the seafront on New Years Day and clocked up 34 species of bird on the new year list. We had hoped to see the water rail (that we had seen the previous day) at Hersey Nature Reserve again but didn’t unfortunately. Four red-breasted mergansers were feeding out at sea which was a first for me. Later on that day we went to Sandown where we added fulmars and a raven to our list as well as sanderlings, oystercatchers, a curlew back along the sea front. Just before we went home again, Dad and I took one last visit to Hersey and, after a long search, I eventually spotted the water rail sitting on the far bank in the reeds. It was a really good view showing its brown back, grey/blue front and red beak. It was easily the best thing on our 2008 list so far.
When we got back home (3/1/08) I went out into the Plantation to look for bramblings and managed to see a flock of about 5 before my fingers froze off. Later on that day we made our first visit to Langford Lakes which provided the first goldcrests and a red-legged partridge and yet another water rail! It was the 3rd one I’d seen in 4 days having never seen them before which was incredible and a great way to start the year!
On the 4th we travelled down to the south coast to Keyhaven Marshes which is a mixture of marshland and beach – an excellent place for birds and, later on in the year, flowers. Plenty of ducks around including pintail and the “whistling” wigeon, but the main focus was on waders. There were 10 different species in total counting grey plovers and a common snipe. Also, we had a good view of a rock pipit feeding among the turnstones which brought the list up to 74 after 4 days!