Monday January 1

For the first time in several years I was not away from my patches on New Year's Day. I decided to carry on with http://www.patchworkchallenge.com for another year, and therefore made the decision to start with the area covered by this blog (East Redditch) as it meant I could start listing birds from the house. Any potential late change of mind was rendered out of the question when we invited some friends over for a walk around Arrow Valley Lake followed by a late lunch.

I was as keen to get going as a seven year old waiting for Santa. After a slightly embarrassing false start when I realised the Tawny Owl I could hear was actually a noise made by my sleeping wife, the first bird of the day was a Robin singing well before dawn. The garden list soon boasted a reasonably long list which included a Chaffinch, and fly-over Rooks, Canada Geese, and Greylag Geese.

The walk to the paper shop added a Sparrowhawk, and some Siskins. There was disappointment too. The Fieldfare which had been claiming the garden for his own has disappeared, and much more of a worry was that my star bird of 2017, the Hawfinch, may have eaten all the Field Maple seeds in Costers Lane and is now absent without leave.

By late morning it was raining steadily, and the walk around Arrow Valley Lake seemed in jeopardy. Happily, as our friends arrived, so did the sun and the walk was on. 

As usual the place was packed with people, and lacked anything that might be called a scarce bird. Nevertheless we duly located a Kingfisher, and watched a Great Crested Grebe in partial summer plumage displaying to one in almost full winter plumage.

Photographic opportunities were plentiful.

Mute Swan

Herring Gull

The pair just following the display

Cormorants

I had intended to put more photos into the Patchwork Challenge gallery (New Year's Resolution and all that), but the site is currently undergoing an upgrade and I was foiled by the change.