Foot It - commencement of the assault

68 species - 18 miles - 37k steps

My first - your second - Foot It day of the year. Literally given away a days advantage to the field. 

First bird was Wood Pigeon, second was Red Kite, right over the garden! Can you imagine?

The morning session produced 46 species, with Lapwing and Skylark within a few hundred metres of the house. Pleasingly, I am having lunch and haven’t seen a Red-legged Partridge - but I have seen two Grey!

Grey Partridge - digi-binned

Grey Partridge - phone papped 

Grey Partridge could have evaded me all month, so a solid species to secure early doors. The other highlight of the morning session was finding not one - but two roosting Little Owls! Who does that?

Exquisite roosting Little Owl photo - taken through bins

This is where Little Owls roost

Mobile phone pap of roosting Little Owl

That is some expert level birding and a helpful reminder I remain at the tip of the birding spear. Well, well, above the shaft which comprises birders like Peter, Jonny and Chris. Those sort of people. Classic shaft birders.

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The afternoon session started strong, with views of the local Peregrine displaying and terrorising feral pigeons. I really like that sort of thing. An otherwise, unremarkable patch of woodland - more game cover than woodland proper - provided both Jay and Nuthatch - within a mile of the house! A single Fieldfare was the only one I had all day - whereas Redwing have been literally constant. 

The closest to a Local Patch I have in West Suffolk is Hall Farm, an unremarkable bit of farmland with two farm reservoirs and concrete tracks. It absolutely delivered today, with a flock of Golden Plover, a female Marsh Harrier - which flew over twice! Plus, no less than 4 Green Sandpiper on the top reservoir. 

There was 4 Green Sandpipers here

It was also really nice to not see a Red-legged Partridge until 13:34 - having already seen Grey Partridge. They are so abundant locally they scrat about the car park at work, so don’t know how this even happened.

Whilst at Hall Farm I did, however, receive the phone call which ruined my day and month and year and the whole of Foot It - just as it was getting going for me. My beloved co-host called and was audibly emotional, having just found a drake Wood Duck! A bird that was un-ringed and wary, which will undoubtedly go down as the first for the UK. I’d cry too to be honest. 

Drake Wood Duck - my dream find - found by other Jonny

With his contempt for wildfowl and constant lite abuse - Jonny is the least deserving person to find a Wood Duck. I’d literally rather Hitler found one. But that’s the sick, cruel world we are living in. The good (me) further ornithology and science - the bad (Jonny Holliday) do six minutes of birding and find a drake Wood Duck. Basically a war crime. 

Despite Jonny’s best efforts I carried on - so valiantly - if you were to take two valiances and put them together, they would still be less valiant than how valiant I am. 

Aside from the Green Sandpipers the farm res held literally no birds! It was a relief to then get Mute Swan, Gadwall, Little Egret and a smattering of other birds on unfrozen pools up the Lark valley path. 

Lark Valley Path

This is the spot on the Lark where I will find a Black-bellied Dipper. Nothing you can do about it

The last of the light was used to walk across the golf course and back into town, safely securing Greylag, Kingfisher and Ring-necked Parakeet for the month. 

Ring-necked Parakeet 

At last knocking I also had the second Cetti’s Warbler of the day - right on the town limits and behind the UPS depot. That’s the sort of glamour you can expect from me. 

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Interestingly, I broke the 2 mile OG Foot It 2 mile radius, but only by 1 mile, with everything just 3 miles radius from the house. Tomorrow the 3 mile radius with be well and truly smashed and by smashed I mean obliterated. To dust. 

That’s just the way it is for us elite Foot It’ers. 

Foot It cold weather base kit. This is in addition to what is on my person. Stay safe out there Foot It’ers

Today’s bird list in full:

Greylag Goose

Canada Goose

Mute Swan

Egyptian Goose

Northern Shoveler

Gadwall

Mallard

Eurasian/Green-winged Teal

Grey Partridge

Common Pheasant

Red-legged Partridge

Rock Dove

Stock Dove

Common Woodpigeon

Collared Dove

Common Moorhen

Eurasian Coot

European Golden Plover

Northern Lapwing

Green Sandpiper

Black-headed Gull

European Herring Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Little Grebe

Great Cormorant

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Western Marsh Harrier

Red Kite

Common Buzzard

Little Owl

Common Kingfisher

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Eurasian Green Woodpecker

Common Kestrel

Peregrine Falcon

Ring-necked Parakeet

Eurasian Jay

Common Magpie

Eurasian Jackdaw

Rook

Carrion Crow

Coal Tit

Eurasian Blue Tit

Great Tit

Eurasian Skylark

Cetti's Warbler

Long-tailed Tit

Goldcrest

Eurasian Nuthatch

Eurasian Wren

Common Starling

Song Thrush

Redwing

Eurasian Blackbird

Fieldfare

European Robin

Dunnock

House Sparrow

Grey Wagtail

Pied Wagtail/White Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Common Chaffinch

European Greenfinch

Common Linnet

European Goldfinch

Yellowhammer