Started the day by waking up on the Sofa at 6am,the missus and baby ended up staying at her mums because the roads were too icy for me to want to drive with Isla in the car,its not that i don't trust my own driving,its the other twats out there that i don't trust...
Went to pick them up at 10am to take them to church,dropped them off (i have no time for religion)and went to my mums to feed the cat as the parents are down in Brighton visiting the sister,hello ginger!!!.So i took the opportunity of an hours garden watch before going back to the church to pick my little family up,in the hour watching the garden i was treated to some cracking action with the following seen:- 1 Coal tit,1 female blackcap,6 blue tit,8 long tailed tit,great tit,redwing,bkackbird,jay,5x greenfinch,8 house sparrow,2 jay,chaffinch & collared dove.
Got home at around 12 and got ready for a walk over the Ingrebourne with my old mate smiles,who wanted to know what all this birdwatching lark was all about.......
After walking to the pond where smiles aka michael tarbuck, aka spam (to his mum) used to collect newts as a kid,he got a phone call from mummy and had to dash but he seemed quite keen and got to see nice views of a cormorant and some long tailed tits before leaving after 20 minutes.So i continued on my own,didn't really have a plan on where i was going,just decided to go with the flow,had a nice snipe coming over the woodland into the farmland and then a common buzzard was seen a way off,actually over my house,then headed off towards the parklands area,other birds seen around the farmland were 18 lapwing,1 redshank overhead,green woodpecker,4 jay,3 redwing and a pheasant,i also heard yellowhammer but couldn't see the bird.
From there i went back into the woodland and headed back towards my flat,before turning into some scrubland with plenty of bushes,straight away i heard goldcrest and after a fe seconds i located it,as soon as i had,i heard another one which was in a tit flock with around 12 long tailed tits,8 blue tits and the odd Great tit,i continued down a path which ended up going to the river ingrebourne,i walked along this,heading towards the country park,i had a heron and a water rail on this before i couldn't go any further,so decided to follow some footsteps in the snow,this was a big mistake although it ended up being a rewarding one.As the track ran out,i suddenly felt quite lost,usually i know the area quite well and its not exactly epping forest but it looks completely different in the snow and as i found out,not everywhere is as it seems,especially as i was walking through a harmless looking opening,only to end up going through ice and getting soaked up to my knee,my leg still hasn't recovered.I decided to get out so fought my way through the bushes and up the wooded hill back to the farmland,after a few minutes i was back on the edge of the woods,as i got there,i heard the sound i had been waiting for the last few days.....WAXWINGS,at first i thought there was only a couple but as i came out of the woods there was 10 in the tree next to me,watched them for a few seconds before they upped and went back towards hornchurch country park,haven't heard if anyone else has seen any today but they are about and 20 & 14 have been reported the last couple of days,just hope a few haven't been eaten by the large female Sparrowhawk i saw hunting on the edge of the woodland.I then got the phone call from the missus to find out where i was as i told her i was just popping over the road for a stroll for an hour or so,that was 3 hours before.All in all a cracking afternoon,if not a bit cold and if smiles had hung around he would of seen some cracking birds
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