New Year Birding
Wednesday 1st to Sunday 5th January 2014 Green-winged Teal on the Top New Piece on 1st The bad weather on New Year's Day meant that the traditional family walk was off, so I spent the morning at WWT instead. The highlights were an adult drake GREEN-WINGED TEAL on the Top New Piece from Zeiss Hide and a LITTLE STINT on the Dumbles from Holden Tower near the scrape. Several other year-ticks didn't include The White-fronted Goose - these were out of sight on the 50-acre. I even tried from the Sloane Tower but couldn't see through the rain lashing on the windows. On 3rd, a good count of 10 Goldfinches were on the garden feeders. On Saturday 4th I headed for the forest with Andy, where highlights included 20+ Hawfinches and a Dipper at Parkend, and three Goosanders at Woorgreens. Nine Crossbill sp. were also seen in flight at Woorgreens but were too distant to determine the species; the calls and size more suggestive of Two-barred though. I returned to WWT Slimbridg...