Window to Wildlife

 So despite my best efforts, I failed to see any new bird species after my last posting on 10th December. My final tally for the year was 216 birds, falling one short of last year’s total. Although this was disappointing, perhaps under the circumstances, it is a reasonable tally. Tier 4 restrictions were a late curve ball, preventing a dash to Reigate for the Ring-Necked Duck that could have just got me to the line. And of course if we had not had to cancel our holiday to Northumberland... Here is a record of our totals since we started running a list in 2010 2010 125 species 2011 157 2012 163 2013 171 2014 182  Tim purchased his scope in July, which must have aided our species identification 2015 193 2016 204 2017 208 2018 216 2019 217 2020 216 Anyway, we had fun trying! Happy New Year to you all

 Well, as the year goes on and with another lockdown limiting our birding opportunities, it has proved increasingly difficult to add to our birdlist. I have managed to increase my annual total each year since we started keeping a list in 2010, but with the restrictions on travel, this year has been challenging and I still potentially need three more birds to reach last year’s total. Since October we have managed to find a distant Hawfinch at West Dean woods, which showed well in the scope but was way too distant for a photo. Then last week, with a cold snap hitting the continent there was an influx of geese into the south east, including White-fronted geese by the River Adur and both White-fronts and Bean Geese in the Cuckmere Valley. A late afternoon dash to E. Sussex provided a useful tick, having failed to locate any Bean geese in Norfolk this year. This week we have had a late flurry of interest. On Monday it was over to Pagham for a Richard’s Pipit, a lifer for us. This was not ea