I enjoyed last week – here are some highlights:
- Monday – Ring-necked Parakeet in London – year tick
- Tuesday – woke in London at 0530 to the beautiful sound of a singing Blackbird
- Tuesday – planned the downfall of driven grouse shooting over lunch with friends (can’t fail!)
- Wednesday – windy, rainy, but went for a dusk walk at Stanwick Lakes and saw a few thousand murmurating Starlings and a flock of 40+ Barnacle Geese. Were the Barnacle Geese wild or feral? No way of knowing but they were the largest flock seen in Northants for ages. They seem to be hanging around too.
- Thursday – day trip to Nottingham to be on a panel answering questions from young people. We oldies enjoyed it and it is very difficult to know whether the approx 15-25 year olds did too.
- Friday – travel down to Sussex via Rainham Marshes (no Water Vole as usual – but good cheese and onion toastie and Blackwit, Ruff and Marsh Harriers) and then on to Capel Fleet raptor watchpoint with more than 50 Marsh Harriers coming in to roost, a distant hunting ringtail Hen Harrier and some Corn Buntings on the wires. Also a good view of a Peregrine elsewhere on Sheppey.
- Saturday – very enjoyable Sussex Ornithological Society conference. Enjoyed speaking but also listening to talks on penguins, Mike Shrubb’s notebooks and birds of Sussex Wildlife Trust nature reserves.