#indoorstoomuch

Little Bunting kick starts the 2018 lifer list. Today saw me heading out in the gloom, rain, cold over to Walthamstow Wetlands. A place i have only been to once before to see a dying Gannet not to very far from where i stood today. Its changed a lot, its accessible and has a nice cafe. I'm beginning to like visiting places where you get charged over the top prices for coffee. £2.80 for a Latte, smaller than Costa's small and more than the cost of a medium., mmmmm. It was OK but didn't warrant the price tag. And in my effort to ruin the planet like everyone else, i got it to take out. However this was on the way home so i've jumped ahead. Luckily i got stuck in traffic on the A406 or my wait in the rain would have been longer, i don't enjoy travelling to London birds, it took me forever last year to get to Wanstead for a Slav Grebe and i didnt even get to see it. Today took just over and hour which considering it took me 20-25 minutes to get home is a pain....

......for now. With yet another little jaunt over to the Ingrebourne i have managed another couple of additions keeping me behind the others as expected, but at a healthy distance. Adding House Sparrow and Red-Legged Partridge  this morning takes me to 68. So as far as i can tell, Hawky is on 73, Mo 71, Shaunboy 71. Mr McG has so far kept his cards close to his chest but is probably already on 80 :) The new addition, Monkey, has smashed his way to 34 in about 10 minutes yesterday. He was going out jogging over there today and has probably added a few more. Its hotting up 🔥🔥 and looking to be quite an expensive year at this rate. The coffee is amazing and the sausage sandwich wasn't bad either

So, another morning over the Valley, and out and about also were Paul & Shaun. Some decent patch birds were found between us. I left along with Shaun, and shortly after Paul gets two Bewicks coming into land on the reservoir. Luckily  hadn't changed and was in the garden, so i jumped in the car and headed back. Sitting nicely on the reservoir two Bewicks for us all to view - Me, Paul, Shaun & Dave Mo. So another patch tick for me and these two bids being the 2nd site record. List now to 64.

Trip two: a few additions but a rather wet end to a pleasant couple of hours. List to 55 with 7 additions. I spent most of the time viewing the reservoir, then ventured on to the farm trail to the woods and back followed by the Glades and finally onto the lower paddock. My target bird was Lesser Redpoll - i struggle with these little things for some reason, not just over the Valley but anywhere. Unless i stumble across a flock feeding and see the movement, i just cant find them. Today was the same. Rather wet Coot, Mute Swan, Little Grebe,  Gadwall, with the last two added to the list. A Red Crested Pochard type was also to be seen. I thought it was an adult female but it didn't look right. Hybrid?   So i'm presently referring to the Duck bible by Sebastien Reeber. The bird was among the Gadwall; however took flight on its own heading towards Berwick ponds. I haven't been over the farm trail much over the last few years but the farmer has left a few p...

A little diary for myself; i'm going to try to beat my Valley Year list. It presently stands at 95 and this was achieved back in 2013.  95 i hear you say - that's low, you should easily achieve this - aha that's where you assume incorrectly. As the name suggests, i don't get out much and when i do i have been know to partake in a few twitches. So in 2017 i managed a mere 7 visits to the Valley along with a twitch for the Spotted Crake.  As much as i want to, after a while am i going to be able to muster the same enthusiasm i have right now, today 1st January 2018. I mean seeing the same old same old that the Valley has to offer has been known to turn my attentions else where, Gardening, DIY, Golf plus numerous other bits. Well anything really. So today got off to a fairly decent start, 48 on day one. Some obvious easy birds missed but a stonker of a patch tick thanks to Dave Mo  in the form of Red Kite. I wasn't expecting the same numbers as oth...