This afternoon of the 24th January 2026 I went in search of the Glossy Ibis I have kept missing since the start of January! I checked some of the places were they have been reported from, but should of realised they would probable would not be at these places given the amount of rain we've had recently because they were all flooded.
Though the afternoon was not a complete washout as I ventured forth to Slepe Heath and to the top of the hill to look over Arnes Moors just incase the Glossy Ibis were hiding out on the moors. And here I saw a wonderful female Marsh Harrier quartering back and forth over the reeds tilting this way and that and making adjustment for the wind as she went low over the reeds.
Now back when I was ill last week one of the things I did was to listen to birds song and especially to Common Crossbill as this was a bird I wanted to see this year as I do not look fort hem generally. In fact my last records show that I first saw this bird back on the 31st May 2014 at Morden Bog! Going through calls on Xeno Canto, the Colins Bird Guide App and the good books by the Sound Approach , The Sound Approach to birding and Catching the Bug. As listen pays dividends ( and hopefully will find different birds now), because on the way back down the the hill I started to hear some calls that sounded familiar to me and instantly stopped by some pines and thought Crossbill and sure enough as I started to scan through the pine I found two Crossbill, then all of a sudden they left this pine but it was not 2 that left but 15 so I tracked the small flock to the next pine to hopefully get some pictures. The weather turned for the worst again and started rain as soon as the camera came out the bag. Though I managed some rather ropey images for the blog for my Bluesky .
The list is now up to 70 species with recent additions .
68 Tawny Owl
69 Marsh Harrier
70 Common Crossbill
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