Walk Like an Egyptian!

Well fly like one anyway.... Finally, on the morning of January 23rd, after more than 7 years in the property, a lone Egyptian Goose was seen flying north up the valley and away - a new bird for the garden. I am surprised at how scarce water birds are here, as I am probably within 3 miles of the river Thames, yet have only seen a handful of Mallard, a few Mute Swans and slightly more regular Canada Geese.

I have been reading the blog of a birding friend who lives across the border in sunny Berkshire and was interested to see the amount of time he spends looking up from his garden and the birds he sees flying over. Sensing a similarity, I have challenged him to a competition to see who can see the most number of species from the garden in 2011 - a bit of harmless fun, as we both will no doubt continue to carry on doing what we do anyway. We appear to have a similar number of garden species, though the spread is somewhat different, so it will be interesting to see the result on December 31st!

Some of the more interesting birds I have seen thus far in January include 3 Blackcaps, 2 females and a male on the feeders on the 1st - never to be seen again! A single Lesser Redpoll also on the 1st; 2 Ravens circling with Red Kites over the valley before drifting off south on the 13th - very unusual here in the winter. The rubbish picture above was of a pair flying over in the autumn, which is when I usually see them; 1-2 Marsh Tits seen most days and both male and female Bramblings occasionally, though only ever one bird at a time so far. My resident Tawny Owls have been seen on and off roosting in the box, but sadly a dead bird was found last week, which may have been a victim of the cold and lack of food - he was intact and had not been attacked by any animals. We did find a dead bird a few years ago in similar circumstances.