A hooting Tawny Owl at 5.18am was first up from the comfort of my bed, with a Robin second on the list as I set foot outside at 7.30. The honourable thing to do first was to check Alton Water to see if the well-settled Black-throated Diver was still in place. It was.
Standing by the dam as the morning sky reddened allowed me to aurally tick a few songbirds that otherwise would have been a pig to track down given the weather and the fact that my walking range is about 100 metres max at the moment. As I left the dam at 8.15 I was up to 36 species, missing a couple of dabblers in Gadwall and Shoveler. The church failed to turn up a Goldcrest, but a couple of Redwing were blown over and a rattling Mistle Thrush were useful additions to the day list.
Next stop was Alton Hall Lane for another check of the reservoir and any plastic geese. Last year a Pink-footed Goose got sucked in with the Greylags. This year I couldn't even find the flock. An unexpected bonus came in the form of a 50-strong flock of Yellowhammers in some stubble. I can normally bank on a calling bird at the end of the lane, but this sort of number was a real surprise. I shuffled a few metres in to the field to see what else was among them and had the briefest snatch of a call that made me think tree sparrow, but I couldn't be 100%. Last winter, some tree sparrows spent a few months in a garden within a stones throw of the field I was stood by.
I was down to Stutton Mill just before 9.30, two hours before high tide. The estuary was almost a moderate sea state, making it difficult to pick out birds in the channel. The roost was well occupied though until a Peregrine came in and razzled things up a bit.
Family duty called and by the time I left the Mill at 10.30, I was on to 61 for the day. Omissions included House Sparrow, Starling, Long-tailed Tit and Skylark. Had I been able to spend another hour there, a Marsh Harrier would have made it 62.
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