Over The Hills & Far Away - Led Zeppelin

It would seem there is a little confusion in some quarters as to the Blog date coinciding with the day reported? Well, simply we are still working a day in arrears to the date shown, which gives me a little space to get to bed at night. With all the travelling of late my return home has often been mid-evening but having posted before leaving the pressure is off.

This morning, the last day of January and my final day to crack the 200 species, started once again with what appeared to be a heavy frost but there was more to come. There were a couple of options to achieve the goal, one being a 'sea watch' at the Bill where it was considered the chances were slim, so it was a return to Holes Bay in Poole Harbour. Reaching the Owermoinge / Broadmayne area, just a few miles outside of Weymouth, the frost was covering everything not just the cars,

but making a brief stop to watch the sun rise over the Purbeck Hill it was likely the hoary coating would be short lived. With 2 roads closed, one with a long traffic light delay, progress was already being hampered but arriving at the Kerry Food Factory close to the bay, the sighs were good. Low tide coupled with little wind and already Little Egret, Redshank, Kingfisher and Wigeon were in the book before arriving at the harbour's edge. Few of the birds were disturbed by my presence except for the

'target' Common Sandpiper

which immediately took to the wing before getting a chance to see it perched. The photographs are from the archive, the lower one showing the sort of view I had of my 200th Species of the Year!

A lovely position to be in but there was more to this day than just reaching the desired figure. Still leaning on my friends for help, it was now a drive to Emsworth in Hampshire to meet up with Paul & Tess Lifton who were lined up to show me around their patch and the chance of a couple more additions. Unfortunately Paul had been 'detailed off' to paint the deck-head in their lounge,

so it was just Tess and I who set out for Warblington Church and the adjoining Cow field in search of the 'long staying' Cattle Egret. She had spent a near sleepless night mulling over the responsibility of finding species number 200 for me, so was well relieved to hear that hurdle had already been crossed. The hour long search was fruitless, despite being aided by a number of other birders who were showing up from time to time, so deciding to cut our losses we took the 30 minute drive to The Burgh high on the rolling hills of the South Downs of West Sussex.

Arundel Castle is the ancestral home of the Duke of Norfolk, who also owns just about every inch of turf hereabouts and from what we gleaned from 3 very knowledgeable local birders has made a right good job of where we were now standing.

Raven

On his vast estate, most of which is open to the public, he has planted miles of hedges, trees and very much improved his Pheasant and Partridge shoot. Agree or disagree with the latter, but to start with the whole area is awash with

Grey Partridge a species thought to be in steep decline.

On our visit we must have clocked up at least 50 birds, but that is not all. Again referring to the locals, before his intervention the only joy of this area was the stunning views, since when Raptors have moved in mob-handed with there being no surprise in seeing Marsh & Hen Harrier, Peregrine, Sparrowhawk and Hobby in season. There is a Rough-legged Buzzard in residence at the moment and in the past an equally rare Pallid Harrier paid a visit.

We personally saw this Red Kite, Merlin,

Kestrel and Common Buzzard, but there's more. Finches abound along with good numbers of all the common woodland birds, there is said to be a large population of Corn Bunting along with 100 or so Yellowhammer that we also logged. However, the species we had come to see was not showing so on advice we shifted station to

Greatham Bridge at Waltham Brooks where we immediately saw a Short-eared Owl. Agreed this was at long distance, but they all count, and a better view can be had via

these archive shots. With a never before achieved January total of 201 we drove the 10 miles back to the Lifton homestead where for the first time this month I was not in a hurry. Invited to stay for dinner, I enjoyed my first hot food for 5 days, so be careful this 'BIRDING' could get hold of YOU!

As if this tally were not enough, taking a look at the Stat Counter it was found that on this very same day the UK readership alone had reached a magical 30,000, along with 17 other countries in the '3 figure zone' and 3 more just hovering outside!

An ideal opportunity I feel to THANK each and every reader for their support, please continue to follow and pass the LINK on to your Families & Friends.
BEST WISHES FROM BAGSY!

	Num	Perc.	Country Name
	30573	75.56%	United Kingdom
	2540	6.28%	United States
	548	1.35%	Canada
	438	1.08%	Estonia
	427	1.06%	Germany
	397	0.98%	Australia
	379	0.94%	France
	283	0.70%	Netherlands
	277	0.68%	Italy
	274	0.68%	New Zealand
	266	0.66%	India
	256	0.63%	Spain
	223	0.55%	Brazil
	195	0.48%	Japan
	155	0.38%	Sweden
	151	0.37%	Belgium
	139	0.34%	Russian Federation
	112	0.28%	Poland
	98	0.24%	Switzerland
	98	0.24%	Ireland
	98	0.24%	Taiwan
	83	0.21%	Mexico