I was really hopeful it would be there. On Wednesday, it looked as though I would easily be able to get three close-to-home birds I had never seen before, and now there was only one left. The thought of having gotten up early with not feeling very well, and dipping the bird I was going to see was one I didn't want to think of.
After arriving at Portchester station at 9:00, with the sun rising over Portsmouth, I started the short bike ride to Wicor Paddocks, where Hampshire's first Cirl Bunting in decades was supposed to be.
I arrived at the pinned field, locked my bike up, and started heading towards a gate to walk around the field. It was very cold, and an immediate search of the bushes nearby produced nothing. I wasn't worrying though, as it was quite a large field, and it was often seen by the pond in the next field across.
A few Goldfinch and Greenfinch were seen, but as I walked around, there was still no sign of the hoped-for bunting. I made it to the bushes where the bird had been reported most of the time, but a while spent searching produced no sight or sound of anything interesting. Hmm.
Another birder I saw had just been by the pond and hadn't seen it, and I was nearing the end of all the bushes in the large field. Now I was starting to wonder if it was still present. I still was expecting it to be present, as it is quite a large area and the bird could of course have been hiding.
I turned my attention to the harbour, where a goose had me hoping for a second before a closer look showed its true identity.
More finches flew about, and when I got to the pond, I saw that a few other birders were searching for the bird there, and in the next few minutes, plenty more arrived, with about 15 scanning the pond and the other field. Still no sign of the bird...
Time slipped by, and despite the efforts of many birders, there was no bird to be found. It had been nearly two hours since I had been there by now, and I was really doubting the bird was there. Which, really, really was not ideal. I started to think of my options, not wanting this to be a completely wasted trip.
After a final search, I decided to give up, as had many other birders by this point, so I headed towards my bike with probably the best bird of the morning, a Redwing, visible in the bushes.
It was a bit depressing, really. After such a poor December for me, things had looked so good for a few days, but disappeared extremely disappointingly just a day before I could get to them.
I thought that Farlington might be worth a shot for geese, so after a bit of research found that I could take the train along to Cosham, then bike to Farlington from there.
After a very, very cold bike ride, I made it to Farlington, locked my bike up and got going.
There were hundreds of geese on the fields, mainly Brent Geese, but plenty of Canada Geese were also present.
I was walking around faster than I usually would be because I really wanted to have time to scan the geese, and was already thinking about the possibility of going somewhere after Farlington, if no interesting geese were present.
A small group of Goldfinches moved through, and two Pied Wagtails were about.
A scan of the hundreds of geese from the southernmost point of Farlington didn't produce anything, and I was already doubtful that anything would be here.
I took the lower path, cutting the southeast corner off, and a Grey Heron was hunting by the gate before flying off.
A huge clump of Wigeon was quite a sight- the group extends far off into the right, but aren't visible in this photo.
A weirdly marked Canada Goose caught my interest for a minute, but it was, as the day seemed to be going, nothing interesting. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Brent Geese were on the field; now and again, a few would fly up and around.
As I continued around, any hope of bean or white-fronted geese being present diminished, so I decided to just try and enjoy the sun, even if it was absolutely freezing.
Nearly on cue, in exactly the same place I had seen it the last time I had been here, the Barnacle Goose was feeding with a small group of Canada Geese in the field along the path towards the hut.
You feel sorry for every time you've said, "Oh it's just a Brent Goose." They are really, very, very cute. It's incredible how many common birds I find I really love when I actually give them a bit of attention.
They started to seem a bit wary of my presence, so I backed off and walked along to where a single bird seemed unbothered by me, allowing me to get some of the best shots of this species I have taken.
The bird started to move away, so I took another photo and started heading down the path.
Nothing else was seen as I headed towards the car park, and although I could have biked to the Oysterbeds to try and get the Red-necked Grebe, I decided against it because I was already tired and needed to get home.
So, a very disappointing result, but it happens. The final three days of the year will, I hope, be busy with birding, but it all depends on this cold of mine. I felt absolutely awful last night when I got home, and pretty bad this morning, but after a restful day, I am already feeling much better. Tomorrow I can't go anywhere, as I'm due to be in Farnham in the afternoon for something, and I want to give myself as much rest as possible so I'm feeling up for Tuesday and Wednesday. I am hopeful I will be able to go somewhere on Tuesday, and want to end the year with a bang somewhere on Wednesday. 5 White-fronted Geese have, typically, turned up at Farlington today, but I'm not sure they'll stay. There are a few more sites with these, and one reachable site still with Tundra Bean Geese, which would be great, but I don't know if the birds will stay or if I'll be able to go. We'll have to see. The year list is at 206, and I severely doubt I'll make it to 210, but if things line up well, it isn't impossible. 2025 really has flown by, but I'm not going to talk too much about the year yet, as I am probably going to do a year review, going through all the birds I have seen. It will also cover the 4 months at the start of the year when I hadn't started my blog- it seems like a foreign world, not getting back home and immediately starting to write for hours about the trip. I really enjoy it.
Well, I'm going to finish this and start thinking about bed- really want to feel better tomorrow. Apologies for posting over a day afterwards, really not been feeling too well. Hopefully, the final few days of Dec won't reflect the rest of the month. Don't get me wrong, though- I'm not complaining about Hen Harrier and Ferruginous Duck, not in a million years. But compared to last year for me, this Dec has been pretty quiet. Doesn't help I've dipped nearly everything that's turned up...
Anyway, good night and happy new year (when it comes!)
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