Monday 27 January 2014

Foot It ends for Another Year

Managed my final visit to the Foot It patch today and that's it for January 2014 and added a meagre two additional species to this years efforts which can be harshly but very fairly summed up  abjectly poor.
 
BH Gull - on the rare occasion the sun came out!
 
I failed and my efforts were pretty much ruined by the weather.  Far too wet, river ridiculously high and exceedingly mild.
 
 
 
 
I had predicted what I thought was a fairly respectable and highly achievable target of 69 species however have fallen someway sort of that mark although have picked up four bonus species; Sparrowhawk (which was somehow missed off my predicted target), Yellowhammer, Snipe and Jack Snipe.  Neither of the latter species were found by me - thanks go to my terrific Clumber Spaniel - Luna.
 
Last year was a much better winter for the patch with cold weather, snow, lots of Waxwings (including in the garden) and all my wildfowl predictions picked up pretty much in the first couple of days.  Woodcock were also pretty easy (again found by Luna) with many found along the River Derwent and one in a ditch on the local rough grassland fields.
 
With time spent working away from home as well as on the PatchWork Challenge patch have both limited the number of Foot It visits to 5 in January.
 
 
Final scores are  53/69 predicted species plus the aforementioned four bonuses.

List is shown below:


 
Species
Date
 
Species
Date
1
Mute Swan
01/01
26
Jay
03/01
2
Greylag Goose
19/01
27
Jackdaw
01/01
3
Canada Goose
01/01
28
Rook
03/01
 
Gadwall
NR
29
Carrion Crow
01/01
4
Teal
19/01
30
Goldcrest
01/01
5
Mallard
01/01
31
Blue Tit
01/01
6
Pochard
01/01
32
Great Tit
01/01
7
Tufted Duck
01/01
33
Coal Tit
01/01
8
Goosander
01/01
 
Skylark
NR
 
Red-legged Partridge
NR
34
Long-tailed Tit
01/01
9
Pheasant
03/01
 
Waxwing
NR
10
Cormorant
01/01
 
Nuthatch
NR
11
Grey Heron
01/01
35
Treecreeper
01/01
 
Little Grebe
NR
36
Wren
01/01
12
Great Crested Grebe
11/01
37
Starling
01/01
13
Buzzard
11/01
38
Blackbird
01/01
14
Kestrel
27/01
39
Fieldfare
01/01
 
Peregrine
NR
40
Song Thrush
01/01
 
Water Rail
NR
41
Redwing
01/01
15
Moorhen
01/01
42
Mistle Thrush
01/01
16
Coot
01/01
43
Robin
01/01
 
Woodcock
NR
44
Dunnock
01/01
17
Black-headed Gull
01/01
45
House Sparrow
01/01
18
Common Gull
01/01
 
Grey Wagtail
NR
 
Lesser Black-backed Gull
NR
46
Pied Wagtail
01/01
19
Herring Gull
01/01
 
Meadow Pipit
NR
20
Feral Pigeon
01/01
47
Chaffinch
03/01
21
Stock Dove
03/01
48
Greenfinch
01/01
22
Woodpigeon
01/01
49
Goldfinch
01/01
23
Collared Dove
01/01
 
Siskin
NR
 
Little Owl
NR
50
Linnet
01/01
 
Kingfisher
NR
51
Lesser Redpoll
19/01
 
Green Woodpecker
NR
52
Bullfinch
01/01
24
Great Spotted Woodpecker
11/01
53
Reed Bunting
11/01
25
Magpie
01/01
 
 
 
 
Additional Species
 
 
 
 
 
Sparrowhawk
01/01
 
Jack Snipe
19/01
 
Snipe
11/01
 
Yelllowhammer
27/01

            NR – Not Recorded
Notable absentees included Gadwall - usually up to 20 on my patch of the Derwent in January, Waxwing (although pretty much absent from most of the UK this winter).  Siskin - again usually guaranteed in the Alders on the river but alas not this year.  No Green Woodpeckers, LBB Gull or Grey Wagtail - suspect the latter due to high river levels and the one that was in the garden last year.  I could go on but its pretty obvious from the list above.
 
This is not the end for the Foot It walks so the list will continue to be kept over the course of the year and I will update / post pics here and on Twitter and here's hoping to a proper January next year (cold and snowy and a few more birds). 
 
Other option is to set my targets much lower for 2015!!