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TIME: 14:30 - 17:00
WEATHER: Sunny mainly, with a few spots of rain. Cold.
SORT-OF NEW BIRD: Continental Pied Wagtail (motacilla alba alba). Pale grey back rather than darker black sported by British Pied Wagtails.
Birds seen:
Redshank - usual numbers dotted round reserve
Oystercatcher - 15
Knot - 1
Ringed Plover - 3
Avocet - 10
Curlew - 1
Cormorant - 1
Greylag Goose - 1
Brent Goose - Still in plentiful numbers, about 2000
Canada Goose - usual numbers
Mallard - usual by car park, and a few others out on the lagoon
Shelduck - 15
Little Grebe - 3
Black-headed Gull - usual numbers
Herring Gull - 7
Greater Black-backed Gull - 1
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1
Tree Sparrow - 15
Blackbird - 10
Goldfinch - 20
Greenfinch - 5
Wren - 2
Robin - 3
Blue Tit - 1
Starling - lots of small flocks dotted about
Woodpigeon - Usual flying over and in fields
Magpie, Pheasant, Rook, Carrion Crow - all in fields round reserve.
Thanks to Paul Sullivan who helped with the Knot identification.
Why the frustration? Well, today, I was 'gripped off' and 'dipped out' on the following goodies that other people saw: male Redstart (would have been a lifer), Blackcap (would have been a lifer), Wheatear (second time this year I've missed it), Swallow, Meadow Pipit, Willow Warbler.
Kind-of led to me having a confidence crisis in my ID skills and my general ability as a birdwatcher. Ominously, in one of the darkest moments today, I was close to crying and hanging up the bins.
Every week, I seem to be going to Freiston and repeating myself on here seeing the same birds, and my lifer list has not been added to with any great number of winter and summer migrants. I feel like I'm stuck in a birdwatching rut and I don't know the way out, and also embarrassed that I couldn't identify the Knot without help.
Everyone on here seems really adept at finding Yellow Wagtails, Grey Wagtails, Redwing, Fieldfare by the hundred, Wheatears, Pinkfeet, Whoopers, Bewick's, Terns, Snow Buntings and all the rest of them while all of them seem to pass me by. It is the same with the Nuthatches, Jays, Treecreepers etc in Boston Cemetery. Am I looking in the wrong places? Going to the wrong reserves? Not getting out enough? Whatever it is, it's really getting to me today.
What I would like to have ideally, is for a local-to-Boston birdwatcher with years, nay, decades of birdwatching experience to accompany me on my trips as a 'buddy' or mentor and show me where I'm going wrong and where I'm not looking. I am a bit loath to walk around the wetland as there are too many grassy tufts that I could mistake for birds.
I make loads of requests for accompanists on here for my trips to Freiston and I've not had a single offer from any of them. I don't know why that is; I am competely baffled and a little bit sad at that. I really need help here and would love to have your company on trips as I feel a bit lonely on my excursions. So, if you're going to either Freiston or Frampton (or indeed any other place around Boston that's not teeming with snakes), PLEASE, PLEASE consider the possibility of having me accompany you!
Right now, I could do with all the confidence boosts possible.
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