101 - Happy Families
14th September 2007, Friday
With lovely weather and lots of birds about on Tuesday, I thought that a circular walk from Pett to Rye via Winchelsea and back through Castle Water and along the seawall should easily produce a bird daylist of more than a hundred species. In the event, it was a bit harder than I envisaged, because of the lack of overhead migrants.
The Happy Families score was good with crows: 6 (including Raven), and with easier tits (4) and Wagtails (3) but tougher with thrushes (usually easy, but no Song Thrushes anywhere) and warblers (no Sedge! no Garden). Dabbling ducks were pretty happy, with only Garganey & Pintail missing, and waders very cheerful indeed with 19 species (all at Pett, where my best-ever score was 20).
The trick is to get not rarities but common and fugitive things like Bullfinch & Goldcrest.
Well, yes, it’s a bit sad, but it keeps me focused. By the time I got down to the Pools, at 99, there was no sign at all of Curlew Sand, but Bearded Tits pinging in the reeds scraped through the hundred barrier. When I got home, however, I found I’d missed Canada Goose off the list.
So it was 101.
