15th January 2012

A cold start this morning with good friend Andy Jones,destination Calshot,Hants for the Spanish Sparrow (A British tick for both of us) a good journey down with 2 Woodcock over the car just before dawn & a probable Long-eared Owl over (that or a S E Owl but habitat suggesting LE Owl) on arrival at Calshot we had about an hour wait before the bird showed with brief flight views before it showed well in the garden hedge (No photos but a cracking bird) the large crowd started to disperse & Andy took the chance to have better views from inside the house as the home owner was allowing access (I really should have gone in judging by some of the pics on the web) after about 2 hours we decided to head for the Dark-eyed Junco which was only 15mins away in the New Forest!!! the bird showed a few times but was distant so only  a cpl of record shots taken with a few Crossbills being an added bonus!! 3rd stop of the day was to Gosport for the ad winter Ring-billed Gull at Walpole Park which showed very well with an ad winter Mediterranean Gull & made for a great end to the day............