2022

 2022 begins....but first...

2021....

Will this be a better birding year....certainly hope so....especially in the ringing department as last years traic total....76 new birds ringed....was...poor.....considering in other years I have ringed hundreds....and in one year I ringed 1000 Chiffchaffs on my own!....though it did help that I was going ringing nearly every day for a month at the time and it was a cracking site....

My only comfort for the ringing year, 2021, was at least I could put Skylark on there....a ringing tick for me and a bird that is hard to come by.....there should be a great ringing tick in the next few weeks, here in the UK as well....

Bird watching was mostly non existent, apart from Greece toward the end of the year there was little to report and few birds on the year list.....and now...

2022....

Didnt get out on 1 January....the garage was closed so no fuel!!....so had to wait....

3 Jan Sheppey, cold, dry, overcast most of the day with brighter patches

Went straight to the raptor viewpoint in Harty Ferry Road...and it was a little disappointing....between here and Capel Fleet, without fail, I have always found at least two Barn Owls.....this time....none...

At the viewpoint there were certainly plenty of Marsh Harriers and the usual Buzzard sitting out on the bales.....the third raptor was Kestrel.

I went back to Capel Fleet to check out the usual ducks....a flock of White-Fronted Geese were present but a very long way off.....

I moved on to Mocketts and a check for Hen Harrier....no Hen Harrier there.....but picked up Great Spotted Woodpecker.

On to the Church and the walk along the Poplars.  The shooting brigade were out blasting Partridge and many Red-legged were legging it across the field to the nature reserve....not surprisingly there wasnt much around here due to the amount of gun fire....but I did find a flock of Chaffinches and working through them found a Brambling.

I parked on the road between Leysdown and Shellness.  Meandered along the sea wall toward Shellness for some way, picked up a flock of Turnstones and among them a number of Sandling.  A flock of Brent Geese were in the field.

Its a start to the year list....a nice day out....