January blues (and other colours)

The pattern of the month was of regular local birding. The Bramblings in Ciren Park were regular, in varying numbers, and also regularly elusive...... they like to perch up from time to time on rare sunny days, when the males looked stunning, but always very wary. Shorncote was quite flooded, and from mid-month cold weather led to icing up of the ditches and shallow flooded areas, which pushed birds such as Water Rail and Snipe into the open. On the 9th I flushed the amazing total of 86 Snipe from the wet fields, in groups of up to 20. Golden Plover were regular with the large Lapwing flocks around the Thames floods. 3 Dunlin were at Kempsford on 17th, and 2 Green Sandpipers flew over Shorncote on 18th. Several cold evenings at Blakehill produced a couple of distant Barn Owl sightings, and a flyover Peregrine there on 19th. A drake Mandarin provided a splash of exotic colour in the Abbey Grounds, Cirencester, on 23rd. A sunny afternoon at Cleveland Lakes on 25th gave nice views of Peregrine perched and in flight, and a couple of cruising Marsh Harriers, with calling Cetti's Warblers and Water Rails as backup.