NEW HYTHE LAKES 6TH MARCH 2018

CETTI'S WARBLER

It amazes me that small creatures manage to survive the type of cold spell recently delivered by the 'beast from the east'. But survive they do, or at least some of them do. Here's a survivor, a cetti's warbler who greeted me and Terry as we walked up the west side of Brooklands lake. Just a 'little brown job' you may think, but their ability to stay completely unseen (if not unheard) adds a little mystery to this particular LBJ and makes a sighting like this so much more memorable.

CETTI'S WARBLER

The western side of Brooklands lake isn't our usual route around New Hythe, but it's the quickest path to Abbey Mead lake where the previous day Glenn had found a black-necked grebe. This is a site tick for me so I did actually drive down on Sunday afternoon to see it, nervous that by Monday morning it might have departed, leaving me with the prospect of possibly another ten year wait for the next one at NH. I needn't have worried though as the grebe was still in situ albeit some distance away from the lake side and out of range for any pictures.

DUNLIN 

After watching the Black-necked Grebe on Abbey Mead we made our way to bucket wood to watch the river for a while. As soon as we arrived Terry picked up on a small wader in the shiny mud exposed by the low tide and this turned out to be a dunlin, another site tick for me and species number 73 for the year so far at NH. Sorry about the poor record shot, all the usual excuses apply!

FIELDFARE

And finally. Here's a long distance shot of a fieldfare, one of many at NH during the freezing weather. Make the most of them. Spring is on its way and the fieldfares and other winter visitors will very soon be on their way too.