Redesmere WeBS Count

On a grey and murky day at Redesmere I carried out the WeBS monthly bird count. It was a pretty quiet affair to be honest, with the usual suspects of mainly Canada Geese, Mallards and Coots. Sprinkled in were a fly over Great White Egret, a Little Egret, some Goldeneye and a few species of gulls. The majority of the gulls were Black-headed, but there was one Common Gull and a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Always nice to see something not so common here.

You can see more of my sightings and here:

Common Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Martin Mere

A week or so ago, I went to Martin Mere to see the Whooper Swans and Pink-footed Geese. There were a couple of bonus birds too though, in the shape of a Glossy Ibis and a Ring-necked Duck. It was a lovely cold, frosty and sunny morning and we got quite lucky with the amount of birds we saw. We managed all 3 Egrets, with 2 Great White Egrets, 3 Cattle Egrets and a Little Egret to complete the set. Plenty of ducks and some Snipe on the water, while the usual woodland birds were hanging around the feeders. Over the marsh, there were Kestrel, a Sparrowhawk, Buzzard and 2 Marsh Harriers. All in all it was a great way to spend a Saturday.

You can see more of my visit here, on my YouTube channel: My YouTube Channel

Black-tailed Godwit

Glossy Ibis

Ring-necked Duck

Moorhen on ice

Pheasant

Tree Sparrows in the Frost

A nice cold frosty morning meant that the weekend got off to a great start. I had a target bird in mind to get on the 2026 Year List, and that was the Tree Sparrow. Not a common bird anymore unfortunately, but I know of a site locally that holds a good number. 

The sun was out and thankfully it was in the right position to shine good light on my subject. It's not an easy task to get a bird that you want to photograph to sit nicely on a branch or to be free of leaves and clutter, and the Tree Sparrow more often than not likes to stay inside bushes. I got lucky just a couple of times, and these are my efforts.

If you'd like to see what else I saw on my walk, click on the link below and you can come with me. 😀 If you like it, subscrube to see me on more of my birding walks.

My You Tube video  

Tree Sparrow

White-fronted Goose

I used some time off between Christmas and New Year to see if I could make any late additions to my year list. High on my list of "possibles" was the White-fronted Goose. With some cold Easterly winds blowing in from Russia, there had been a bit of an influx in the previous week. Nothing had been reported locally, but I thought there'd be a good chance to find one in amongst the local flocks of Canada and Greylag Geese. I managed to find  a few last year, so I knew where would be a good place to look. 

As it turned out, I got extremely lucky. A wrong turning took me somewhere I had no intention of going. I got out of the car just as some geese flew over my head and landed in the next field. It looked like mainly Greylags, but always worth being thorough and checking them all. BINGO!!! One Russian White-fronted Goose. It didn't make it easy as it kept ducking down and walking behind the Greylags. When your luck's in, your luck's in. A final addition to the Year List, which finished at 196.

White-fronted Goose (centre with the striped belly)

The white front above the bill just visible, and distinctly smaller than the Greylags.

I'm Also Now on YouTube

I'm going to try something new this year. I thought as well as doing my blog, I'd try to do some videos of my escapades. I'll being including details of where I've been and what I've seen, whilst also including pictures and videos of what I see.

I'd love you all to join me, take a look and if you like what you see then subscribe to my channel and like or comment on my videos. I'd love to know that people are enjoying my content, or any suggestions for future videos. It's new venture for me, but I'd like you all to come along for the ride with me. It could be fun. 😀

My channel link to Adam Jones Photography is here: https://www.youtube.com/@adamjonesphotography

And here is my first video: https://youtu.be/ke21VVRtavk?si=-81dk3XC7ZfHxREf