Having a couple of hours to kill, and for completion's sake, I biked over to Barham Pits, part of a local patch that includes Pipp's Ford. The pits are a variety of overgrown lakes given over mostly to fishing, but accessible due to public footpaths,
Surprisingly the birding wasn't too bad, although duck number, and variety, were typically low, the variety of smaller birds made up for it.
There is something childish in birdwatching in which counting birds is one of them. 1-2-3-4 ducks, it becomes addictive especially when you take in your history of the site and then compareing them to different sites, it really brings birding to life .
Of the three pits, the most northerly, which has no name held 7 TUFTED DUCK, 11 COOT, 2 SWANS and 1 GREBE. Barham Pit A, to the south, held 11 TUFTED DUCK, 1 GREBE and 3 COOT. Barham Pit B, which is by far the largest pit, held 2 GREAT CRESTED GREBES and 2 TUFTED DUCK.
There was a scattering of MALLARDS, MOORHENS and GEESE throughout the site.
On the small bird front things were a little better. A beautiful male BULLFINCH was in bushes in the causeway between the Northerly Pit and Pit A. Further south where Pit A met Pit B there was a large flock of SISKEN and REDPOLL, a very noisy ensemble, that could be heard some distance away; with them was a TREECREEPER.
I've done a lot of birdwatching recently so I may take next week off, to relax my eyes and my brain. Have fun until then.
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