Welcome to 2014

I woke up at about 7am this morning to the sound of an alarm-calling Blackbird - my first bird of 2014! As I was awake I decided to get up and head out to Linacre for a few hours before it started to rain.

I got to Linacre just before sunrise  and the first birds I saw were two Little Owls that flew into the oak tree where we ringed an adult and young bird last year ( see here and here for details and pictures). Hopefully, these two were the adult birds from last year, and they'll breed again in 2014. I carried on down the main drive and the second bird I saw was a Tawny Owl that flew across from the middle car park into the woods. Not a bad start! When I got out of the car I could also hear several "Tawnies" calling in the woods.

I walked around all 3 reservoirs over the next 2 hours, and, despite the rain that started after an hour, I managed to record some excellent counts of Mallard (170 - a new highest count), Mandarin Duck (34), Tufted Duck (64),  Black-headed Gull (57), Coot (15- highest January count), Moorhen (8), Cormorant (2), Little Grebe (2) and Canada Goose (2 on the middle reservoir- my first January record).

Year List update:
1 – Blackbird
2 – Little Owl
3- Tawny Owl
4 – Carrion Crow
5 – Pheasant
6 – Robin
7 – Wren
8 – Redwing
9 – Woodpigeon
10 – Goldcrest
11 – Siskin
12 - Bullfinch
13 – Nuthatch
14 – Jay
15 – Chaffinch
16 – Blue Tit
17 – Great Tit
18 – Coal Tit
19 – Tufted Duck
20 – Mallard
21 – Long-tailed Tit
22 – Great-spotted Woodpecker
23 – Coot
24 – Moorhen
25 – Treecreeper
26 – Jackdaw
27 – Black-headed Gull
28 – Little Grebe
29 – Canada Goose
30 – Mandarin Duck
31 – Cormorant
32 – Magpie
33 – Dunnock
34 – Greenfinch
35 - Starling

Birds 2 - 31 were all seen at Linacre and 1 and 32 - 35 were seen in the garden at home.