​12:45 – 14:00:  The Point, Teignmouth, Devon (50.540799, -3.499607)
On arrival at the Teignmouth sea-front, enormous breakers were crashing right against the shore-line, drenching passers-by.  It was hard to even hold the binoculars steady and the winds were icy.  A ghostly 2nd winter Iceland Gull was soon swept by on the wind.  In the shelter of the bay at the point itself, around 30 black-headed gulls were battling the wind like storm-petrels.  From 13:50-13:55, the adult winter Bonaparte’s Gull showed extremely well, with its pale plumage, black trailing wing edge, dark fine bill and strikingly pale-pink legs, my second seen in the UK.
 
15:00-15:10:  Cadbury Gardens, East Budleigh, Devon (50.655356, -3.321499)
In Corsica, in 2006, I spent quite a lot of time observing Italian Sparrows around the island’s villages and towns. The location of a male in Devon, and its ID, are still under discussion, but at 15:05 the Italian Sparrow arrived on its feeder in East Budleigh and looked, to me, exactly like a pure male of the species, so it remains to be seen what the authorities decide.  It was particularly nice to find the whole village of East Budleigh alive with nest-prospecting sparrows, starlings and sympathetic gardens.

​08:30-09:30:  Ferrybridge, Dorset.
In freezing winds I waited at the causeway between Weymouth and Portland for the arrival of a Ross’s Gull.  An enterprising visitor from the pack ice of North America, this extremely rare gull is, unusually for a gull, appealing to a wider audience – dainty, rosy and elegant in shape.  The species is also notorious for wandering around, and news soon arrived it was somewhere else – at Lodmoor.  By the time we arrived there, it had flown off.  Ferrybridge yielded ringed plovers and red-breasted mergansers for the year, whilst a Mediterranean Gull was observed by Weymouth Pier on leaving the B&B.
 
11:30:  Portland Bill, Dorset (50.514097, -2.455360)
With no sign of the pack ice wanderer, a visit to the Bill provided the spectacle of four purple sandpipers being battered by the waves on the rocks just E of the lighthouse.   As each wave crashed in, the birds scuttled out of the way, only to return and feed in its wake.  I then drove back into Weymouth in search of the gull.
 
12:30-13:15:  Lodmoor West Scrape, Dorset (50.629974, -2.443826)
In anticipation of the gull dropping in, a pleasant spell at a sunny Lodmoor, a lovely little reserve nesting right in the heart of Weymouth, produced a range of waders including an avocet, five ruff, black-tailed godwit, lapwing, snipe and dunlin.  Whilst the target gull never appeared, between 12:45 and 12:50, in rapid succession, two Glaucous Gull, a second and third winter, dropped into the scrape, with the third-winter being strikingly owlish white in colour. Two spoonbills, one colour-ringed, gave superb views feeding at close range.
 
14:20-15:30:  Radipole Lake, Dorset (50.615604, -2.460220)
After checking Bowleaze Cove, news came that the Ross’s Gull had been refound at Radipole Lake.  Given its preference for staying in any place for just ten minutes at a time, the foot went firmly down on the accelerator.  On arrival at 14:35, a group of around forty people were enjoying this snowy wanderer, which, as someone said, looked almost like a snow-petrel with its tiny dark eye and bill.  The rosy hints on the under-parts were apparent in the sunlight.  Around 14:50, the bird took flight once again, looking in excellent shape considering its remarkable journey. 

12:30-14:00:  Wapley Hill, Leominster, Herefordshire (52.253763, -2.941387)
My friend Nick Gates and I drove into northern Herefordshire where, following the demise of the Forest of Dean population, there is still a small willow tit population thriving in the elder and hazel scrub within the older forestry plantations.  The larch can also provide a useful food resource in the winter months.  Today the larches were alive with literally thousands of birds, including a singing male crossbill, 100+ coal tits, 200+ siskins and lesser redpolls and at least 3 bramblings.  A pair of willow tits eventually showed very well, with the male in full song, in the elder scrub around the car park.  Elder scrub has to be the most overlooked and tidied habitat in the UK, but wherever you see willow tits, elder is not far away.  Leaving room for it to rot is extremely important if willow tits are to survive in the UK.  154 species reached.

​14:30:  Sharpness Docks, Severn Estuary, Gloucestershire (51.719788, -2.478289)
A first-winter male black redstart was eventually located at this traditional industrial site, where birds have spent the winter since I started birding the area seriously in 2003.  Black redstarts have never been proven to breed in Gloucestershire, although many breeding sites are inaccessible due to security reasons, being industrial in nature.  My article on Black Redstarts, written for Birdwatching, can be found on the Writing page.  

13:30-14:30:  Staines Reservoirs, Surrey (51.447474, -0.488676)
In a howling gale, there could be no worse conditions to locate a small bird, yet no better site to do so.  The exposed causeway at Staines has recently played host to what will, subject to a ‘split’, be the first record of an American Horned Lark in the UK.  The bird was eventually located on the southern edge of the causeway, an extremely ornate species.​  Most Horned Larks wintering in Britain do so on the north coast of Norfolk and come from northern Europe; this bird had come a lot farther.    151 species reached.

​10:30:  Trenance Pool, Newquay, Cornwall (50.407198, -5.076350)
Some gull watching is easier than others, and it doesn’t come easier than the only gull on the pond.  A smart 1st winter Ring-billed Gull was enjoyed here before moving on in pouring rain.
 
12:00:  Pendower Beach, Veryan Bay, Cornwall (50.203065, -4.947607)
Brutal winds put paid to any study of divers and grebes offshore, or any chance of finding a recent wintering Pacific Diver (1-2 of which are now annual off the Cornish coast), but I did locate one Great Northern Diver and several Fulmar and a single Rock Pipit.
 
13:00-13:20:  Porthpean Bay, St Austell, Cornwall (50.322085, -4.764826)
The wind had seemingly died completely by the time I arrived here, and in the sheltered bay I quickly found 3 Surf Scoters, a smart juvenile drake, adult and juvenile female, in the company of a long-tailed duck, one black-necked grebe, three common scoter and an increasingly rare bird off the UK coast in winter, a smart male velvet scoter.  An excellent stop.
 
14:30:  Wilcove, Tamar Estuary, Cornwall (50.385748, -4.208805)
Green-winged Teals are a rare wintering species with an annual presence in Cornwall, and the bird in question has in recent weeks spent its time between two sites along the Tamar Estuary.  Having checked Wacker Quay, I arrived at Wilcove to find the drake, with its characteristic horizontal white flank stripe, on the estuary bank.  Also here were at least four smart Mediterranean Gulls, adults in winter plumage, a greenshank and a whimbrel, being chased by a curlew.  I then took the car ferry across into Devon.
 
15:45: Broadsands Bay, Paignton, Devon
A brief stop a chiffchaff, and a feeding frenzy of gannets and kittiwakes offshore, but no cirl buntings.  This area has become well-known in recent years for a winter flock, which often comes to seeds around the car park area here and breeds in the adjacent farmland.  Today there was no sign so I quickly moved onwards.
 
17:15:  Matford Marsh, Exeter, Devon (50.694007, -3.507561)
Fortunately I had mapped a lay-by for this attractive but well-hidden RSPB nature reserve, and so was able to arrive with the remaining light on side.  Around one hundred wigeon were grazing the marsh, and a sneaky red fox passing through eventually moved them back out onto the open water.  An extremely dapper study in pink, green and cream, a male American Wigeon then appeared and gave excellent views.  

​For any novice birders reading this, most wild American ducks in the UK each have an associated ‘carrier’ species that they move around with.  Each year, a small number of American Wigeon join large flocks of their European cousins around Britain’s coasts, usually turning up at grazing marshes or estuaries.  This very successful day brought the year to 150 species.

16:00:  River Thames, Richmond, London (51.458644, -0.308034)
A day with the cousins yielded a chilly walk along the Thames, with a pair of Egyptian Geese, at least five Ring-necked Parakeets and it was nice to see Grey Herons and Cormorants both nesting in an urban area, clearly now a part of the scene once again.

16:00-17:10:  Ibsley Water, Blashford Lakes, Hampshire (50.878879, -1.789827)
A very full bird hide this evening anticipated the arrival of a Thayer’s Gull, a distinctive race of Iceland Gull, from North America, considered by some to be a separate species.  

​During the wait, I located an adult yellow-legged gull in the roost at 16:40.   At 16:50, a first-winter Caspian Gull, previously located by another observer, was found to the left of the right-most island in the lake before taking flight.  Around 17:05, after information passed from an observer outside the hide, the juvenile Thayer’s Gull appeared right of the left island.  Not every observer picked the bird out, and the chaos of fading light, and thousands of birds, meant I missed birds as well, such as an adult ring-billed gull.  

12:30:  Pit 32, Cotswold Water Park, Gloucestershire (51.661316, -1.961390)
Six Red-crested pochards, including two drakes, were observed here – a prime site for this species.

​14:15:  Godney Moor, Levels, Somerset (51.192111, -2.754677)
A cattle egret looked as if it were regretting its move northwards from the Mediterranean as it fed beside cattle in a rain-soaked muddy field, with twelve little egrets, at the reference point above.  After five pairs raised young in Somerset last year, hopefully this smart species will now become fully established as a breeding bird.
 
14:45:  Tadham Moor, Levels, Somerset (51.185783, -2.808633)
The Somerset Levels are home to a small number of wintering whooper swans, and a pair were located from a roadside bend just beyond Westhay Village, off the Blakeway, at the reference point above.  Always striking birds.

10:30-12:00:  Serridge Inclosure to Crabtree Hill, Dean, Gloucestershire.
A bracing day in the Forest of Dean took me on my third shrike attempt, again the bird eluded me.  However the morning was larch-tastic.  Hundreds of siskins and redpolls, and dozens of coal tits, all feasted away in the robust larch crop.  Only a few years ago, I would find several willow tit territories in this area, but as expected, there were none today; the species has vanished from the Dean as it is doing from most of the British countryside.  Several common crossbills flew over.
 
13:30:  Farmland near Hawling, Cotswolds, Gloucestershire (51.895891, -1.922045)
A drive into the Cotswolds produced my first skylarks of the year.  In the kind of rare fallow area you used to see a lot more of, a stand of brambles, hawthorns and fallow grasses set-aside near the village of Hawling, I finally had excellent views of a male Great Grey Shrike hunting the hedge-line.
 
13:30:  Pit 29, Cotswold Water Park, Gloucestershire (51.650271, -1.949189)
The duck luck continued with a smart female Smew on one of the water park’s many gravel pits.  This entire area is far richer than you might expect.  A ‘brownfield’ area ten kilometres in length around these pits has never been sprayed or tidied like most of the British countryside, so come spring you have cuckoos, nightingales, grasshopper warblers, garden warblers and many other birds still thriving here.  In winter, wooded gravel pits have a peculiar draw for smew, perhaps because they resemble their wooded breeding grounds in Scandinavia, where they nest in tree cavities.