January blooms

Came across these fungi in a local woodland (Wilderness Island) today. Had the moth trap out last night and caught this micro (pic 4). Help with ID appreciated with any of these. I reckon from top to bottom: sulphur tuft, oyster mushroom, bracket sp and...... micro moth sp.

White-wingers

2nd-winter Iceland Gull

Adult Med Gull

Shoveler and Teal

Fungus sp.

There's 2 Iceland and 1 Kumlien's Gull at Beddington at the moment. Today I saw a 2nd winter Iceland which I also had from the kitchen window yesterday.

It's very mild at the moment- had the moth trap out last night and quite a few insects in it but just a couple of micro moths.

Arundel Day Trip

Brown Hare

Grey Partridge

Rough-legged Buzzard

View over Burpham towards Arundel castle

Starling roost at Arundel WWT centre

Had another look around the Arun valley in the Arundel region. Following good conservation practise in the agricultural region around Burpham a large area has become a refugia for farmland birds with populations of Corn Buntings, Yellowhammers, Grey Partridge etc in very good numbers. Over the last couple of weekends I've seen Short-eared Owls, Rough-legged Buzzard, Red Kites, Common Buzzards, Sparrowhawks, Kestrels, Peregrines, Merlin and Ravens and also Bewick's Swans by the river. Very encouraging to see such a bird rich refuge on such a large scale. Saw a couple of Brown Hares too. 3000 Starlings coming into roost at the WWT centre was impressive.

Gulls, gulls, gulls

An excellent bit of gulling this afternoon. They others also saw a first winter Caspian.

Juvenile/first-winter Kumlien's Gull- showing obvious dark wash to outer primaries

Juvenile/first-winter Kumlien's Gull- showing smooth dark tail band and dark outer primaries

Adult Mediterranean Gull

First -winter Yellow-legged Gull

Juvenile/first-winter 'high latitude pale gull'. An influx of large gulls today included 165 Great black backs and a couple of strange pale looking gulls which presumably originate from the far north/ Iceland?

Winter moth?

Moth 1

Moth 2
Put the trap out a couple of nights ago as it was so mild and caught two of these.

Holiday birding

Short-eared Owl

Brent Geese at Pagham Harbour

Lapwings- about 2000+ at Pagham Harbour

Bewick's Swan

Blackwits at Oare.

Had a few days out birding in the south-east over the holiday.

NON-STOP BIRDING PLAN 2012

So made some good progress through 2011 on all fronts of the three pronged attack. The Plan for 2012 is to push on steadily forward.

The Local Front:
http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/2011/12/beddington-farmlands-review-2011.html

2012 plan is to consolidate a management group to develop the nature reserve, complete the pan-species inventory, develop improved wildlife monitoring and reporting systems and increase the wildlife group membership and public engagement.

The Mid-Atlantic Front:

http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/2011/12/azores-review-2011.html

2012 Plan is for futher pelagic exploration, improvement in recording and documentation and hopefully further development of the Azores Birding Society.

The Propaganda Machine:

http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/2011/12/thee-bryans-2011-review.html

2012 plan is to complete part 3 of the envionmentally themed music/art project and attempt first live performances.