Week 3 - 11 - 17 January 2026

After a cold start to January, the weather warmed up in week 3, and rain was plentiful. As a glasses wearer, this meant a challenging week for observing birds with many walks hunkered down with by glasses beneath a baseball cap (the keep the rain off them), and a hood over my head (combining with the wind to limit what I could hear).

Sunday the 11th saw a short walk through just the ecopark and down to the education campus in strong winds and rain / drizzle, the birds largely adapted my approach, mostly being hunkered down too! It was nice to see a Meadow Pipet again, and great to see the recent ice having melted from the ponds that the Moorhen was back in the water rather than walking around on the ice.  

Cloudy and breezy summed up Monday the 12th with the chance to work a fairly expansive part of central and eastern Cranbrook at a steady pace. A cracking tally for the day adding Stock Dove to the list in the SE corner of the Great Meadow, and then a real treat.

Crossing over the bridge from the Great Meadow into the dog free boggy / scruffy area to the west, I was just browsing for the Stonechats I see in this spot (they were there). But I accidentally flushed a small wading bird, this flew silently and direct a short distance back into cover, with the yellowish stripes down the back visible. I've accidentally flushed many Common Snipe before, they tend to make a racket, zig-zag about, and disappear into the distance....so adding together the smaller size, of this bird and the escape, I'm confident it was a Jack Snipe.

My eBird entry for the Jack Snipe

Later on the 12th the school pickup in Rockbeare village resulted in a male Blackcap appearing in the scrub in front of the Stoneylands estate.

The final patch trip was a short loop on a cold, grey drizzly afternoon on Wednesday the 14th. This only involved a short 1.5 miles from home around the ecopark, but had the second treat of the week. I've known a Water Rail has been present in the ecopark this winter, having heard it's pig like squeals on 3-4 occasions. 

But recent cold weather and rainfall (flow) has lead to some of the reeds in the basins getting flattened and given more open water in recent weeks. Today the squeals were coming from a more open area, I had to get down low to see under the trees and other vegetation around, and scanned the thinner area of the reeds the squeals were coming from. For around 5 minutes I could only see ripples, but around 5 minutes I got the close and clear views of the Water Rail I'd been looking for. I was a surprisingly attractive bird, the delicate white barring on the black belly very striking.

Cue the many people walking past me during this time under the bushes with binoculars trained on reeds in a pond. No doubt people will have thought me strange, but the older I get the less I care about what other people think, it's very freeing! 

On the 15th and beyond a short trip to visit the family followed, meaning that's it for the patch this week. 4 more birds, Stock Dove, Blackcap (male and female), Jack Snipe and Water Rail seen, taking the 2026 total to 46 by the end of week 3.