12th February 2012

With the voice of the Tame Valley (Tom Perrins) ringing me asking if i fancied a trip down to Calshot,Hants for the Spanish Sparrow etc over the weekend my Sunday was planned!! met up with Tom & Jules Allen at 7am & took a leisurely drive down arriving on site by 9-30ish & were rewarded with views almost straight away (Result!!) a few record shots were taken (on the wrong setting i must add! resulting in a few sly comments & cussing on my part) with Tom & Jules getting the views they wanted they took the chance to have a look around the marshes whilst i waited for the bird to perform!!! it did but always up high & then flew to the other end of the close onto some feeders (Don't do feeder shots) so decided to head upto the marshes to catch up with the boys,I got up onto the footpath down by the Power station when I stopped to put my gloves on looked up & there was the Sparrow 30ft in front of me singing!!! You couldn't make it up shots took (happy bunny) caught up with the boys had a few decent year ticks with Black Redstart & Peregrine being the highlights!!! before we moved onto Hawkhill Inclosure in the New Forest for the Dark-eyed Junco which showed reasonably well despite the group of rather noisy birders trying their best to create a football crowd!!! a superb day & many thanks to Tom for the driving!!!!

Rock Pipit

Dark-eyed Junco

Spanish Sparrow