WILDLIFE DIARY AND NEWS FOR DEC 28 - JAN 3 (WEEK 53 OF 2015) Fri 1st January 2016 54 Birds and 45 Flowers to start the year In my garden just before sunrise the moon was close to Jupiter high in the southern sky and Robins and a Song Thrush were serenading it from local gardens as a Carrion Crow flew down to collect the sraps of bread I threw out on the lawn before setting out on my bike in search of birds. Also on my lawn I was surprised to see that a Meadow Waxcap fungus had sprung up a couple of weeks after I thought my garden fungus season was over - later I added another fungus to my day list with a smart fresh Yellow Fieldcap (Bolbitius vitellinus) growing from a cowpat on the South Moors Internet photos of Yellow Fieldcap and Meadow Waxcap My proposed route was along the shore from Langstone to Farlington Marshes lake and as the wind was forecast to become increasingly strong from the south- east, and the tide to be rising from low at 9.0am I thought it best to follow the shore with the wind behind me on the way out and to stick to the cycle track and roads on the way home so I rode down Wade Court Road listening out for garden birds among which I heard bursts of song from more than one Dunnock (not a bird I associate with winter song) and saw two smart cock Pheasants in the horse feeding area immediately south of Wade Court. Langstone Pond had the Swan pair and five cygnets and the only unexpected bird on the mud offshore was a Grey Plover. On reaching the South Moors the first birds I saw while manoeuvring my bike through the kissing Gate from Mill Lane were two Green Sandpipers in a pool on the grass before taking off noisily when they saw me. From the seawall, with the tide at its lowest I saw my first Grey Heron (there were none at Langstone Pond) and my first Merganser, both hoping for breakfast in small pools left by the tide. On the Budds Farm pools I added Pochard, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Shoveler and Little Grebe before I was joined by another birder who had just seen a Great Northern Diver in the Hermitage Stream south of the Harts Farm Way bridge so I headed off that way. Before reaching the stream, at the south end of Southmoor Lane, I found White Comfrey and Goat Willow in flower had a close view of a Goldcrest As I arrived at the stream a small flock of Long Tailed Tits flew across it into the trees on the slopes of the 'Broadmarsh mountain' where one of them gave a burst of its tiny trilling song. No sign of the Diver but both Great Crested Grebe and Wigeon were new to my list and where I stopped to view them a young tree was revealing its identity by bearing the first Cherry Plum flowers I have seen (the first were reported at Brook Meadow on Boxing Day and, later today, cycling home along Harts Farm Way where it passes the north of the Broadmarsh moutain, I found several mature trees on both sides of the road were flowering. Proof that the Diver had been in the stream came when I checked Brian Fellows blog and saw it had a close-up photo of the bird taken by Peter Raby (see Great Northern Diver). From the Broadmarsh cycleway I spotted at least one male Pintail in the great mass of Brent Geese in the Chalk Dock lake and a little further west another Green Sandpiper took off from a pool in the Marshes 'Slip Field' (shown next to the North-east entrance to the reserve on the map below):- Bob Chapman's map of Farlington Marshes Next I had a distant view of something large and white in the distant North Marsh - stopping to use my bins I found this was one of the two 'white geese of uncertain origin' that traditionally accompany the many Canada Geese which winter here - while it was not added to my list the Canadas were recorded. Reaching the entrance road to the reserve I was disappointed not to see the expected Avocet flock in the Broom Channel which runs past Kendall's Wharf and under the Eastern Road into Ports Creek though I did add Common Gull and Cormorant to the list and was impressed by a Kestrel's ability to hover motionless above the Eastern Road roundabout while facing into a near gale force wind. Parking my bike at the reserve entrance I walked to the seats at the Lake viewpoint with a Banana and some biscuits for refreshment. While there a large flock of Lapwing gave me another tick and the hordes of Brent on the marsh seemed to disprove my suggestion that they had already left to seek shelter in the Baltic - nevertheless yesterday saw another 160 pass Dungeness bringing the total already seen leaving us to over 2,500 to which must be added a similar number flying east without being seen. Walking back to the bike two birders who stopped to chat pointed out the Avocet flock sheltering just north of Kendall's Wharf and so removed the one disappointment of the morning and put me in a good mood for the ride home. After lunch, although it was starting to rain it was not enough to stop me walking around the local area to make a list of flowering plants during which, while in the centre of Havant, I added two more birds - Pied and Grey Wagtail - to bring my daylist total to 54. My flower list ended with a total of 45 species of which the most unexpected for the date were Hazel catkins, Goat Willow 'Pussy Paws', Cherry Plum, Cow Parsley, Red Clover, Ox-eye Daisy, Bulbous Buttercup, and Hedge Mustard. Hopefully nature will provide me with much more pleasure during the remaining 365 days of this Leap Year. Thu 31 December Mass departure of Brent Geese and mass arrival of Auks On my visits to the Warblington shore area on Monday and Tuesday of this week I did not see any Brent Geese but assumed they had flown inland to escape the strong winds along the shore. Today, however, I spent some time catching up with internet reports from coastal sites and was left with a strong impression that the Brent are so fed up with the winds affecting Britain that they are leaving en masse in the hope of find shelter in the Baltic until the time comes to head to their breeding grounds. One strand of the evidence for this came from the Dungeness website which had reported the first 140 Brent flying east on Dec 14 (three weeks earlier than the first departure last winter) followed by 210 heading east on Dec 22. Normally these early reports of departing birds only come from Dungeness but this year Christmas Day brought a report of 150 heading east seen from the east coast of the Isle of Wight and Dec 28 brought news of 408 passing Dungeness plus 28 flying east past St Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight (a southerly route suggesting that these birds might come from the west coast of France). Also on Dec 28 the Selsey blog reported 15 juveniles in a flock of 1300 Brent at Chichester Marina - suggesting that that flock was on the move from somewhere outside the local area in which the highest number of juveniles in any one flock had been just 7. On Dec 29 another 300 went past Dungeness followed on Dec 30 by 1165 more plus another 100 going east from the Isle of Wight and 144 passing Selsey (possibly the same birds). Today's search of the internet also corrected the impression that I had yesterday that no mass movement of Auks had yet started moving down the English Channel, making Tony Gutteridge's sighting of a Razorbill off Langstone an isolated precursor of the main arrival. Although the figures I saw today specify Guillemots I guess the numbers also include a proportion of Razorbills. Counts of birds heading west past Dungeness were 399 on Dec 27 and 1104 on Dec 30 with a third report dated Dec 28 of 15 going west past St Catherine's point of the Isle of Wight. Local news received today included another drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker in the Staunton Country Park and a Great Grey Shrike in trees around the carpark for the new Havant Crematorium off Bartons Road just west of its junction with the Horndean Road coming north from Emsworth. Brian Fellows blog entry for Dec 26 also has two local surprises - the first was that the cultivar of Cherry Plum in Brook Meadow was just starting to flower (last spring the first hint of these trees flowering came on Feb 1 with general flowering not starting till the second half of February) and the second was the discovery on Dec 25 of a Collared Earthstar fungus (Geastrum triplex) in Nore Barn wood. A final mention must be made of yet another late Swallow - this one seen at Charmouth in Dorset on Dec 27. Wed 30 December Christmas Birds and Butterflies My own finds over the Christmas Holiday have already been noted and today I did not venture out so had nothing new to report but this evening I had an email from Tony Gutteridge telling me he had today watched a Razorbill floating east just off Langstone Pond.