Peter Jones Wildlife blog

Finished the year at Skidmore just before dusk: 1 Peregrine 1 Kestrel 1 Water Rail Plenty of Starlings in a pre-roost plus a few Redwings and a Buzzard. #dogwalk, #Skidmore

Dark-Bellied Brent Geese at Calshot. (Eos 600d, 70-300L) #Calshot, #video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvCtrGxSkNo&feature=share

An afternoon dog walk around Fishlake Meadows, on the North edge of Romsey. Plenty of wildfowl including Pintail, Pochard, and Teal. Plus a single Snipe. As darkness fell, a stakeout of the flooded path produced good views of a Water Rail. At least 6 singing Cetti's Warblers was a decent count. #Fishlake, #dogwalk

Quite a fruitful dog walk along Hoe Lane on Christmas Day: A very vocal Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was the highlight even though I couldn't pick it out. Also a Peregrine showing well, 1 Meadow Pipit and a few hundred Redwings #Toothill, #dogwalk

#Hurst #Seawatch, Dunbridge lake, and the Leica #Duovid A couple of Sunday mornings spent in the field recently.. A few hours sea watching at Hurst ticked over, with a good selection of wildfowl including Eider, Common Scoter, Pintail, GoldenEye and Wigeon plus Red-throated Diver and Red-Breasted Merganser. Closer to home, an hour at Dunbridge lake was fairly uneventful with just 16 Wigeon the highlight. I'm getting used to a new pair of binoculars: traded in my old Leica trinovids for a used Leica Duovid (8+12x42). For anyone unfamiliar with this model, you twist both barrels to choose either 8x42 or 12x42.. 8x being good for close or cluttered habitat, 12x coming into it's own for more open habitat. Both magnifications are very sharp and clear, and although pretty heavy, the bins are well balanced. Hand holding at 12x is quite easy. So they look to be a good buy, and maybe surprisingly, they arent more popular.