by Bill Nicoll
4th January 2004
It was the first Sunday of the year, so the ROC was at Wraysbury as tradition demands (perhaps it is time for a change?). The day was grey and a bit drizzly, but not cold. The mud squelched under our wellingtons as nine members set off round Wraybury Village pit in search of winter treasures. We were not disappointed. After quite a lot of searching and more than the usual amount of walking (the Wraysbury 'specials' can often be seen from the car park) we located several rather distant Goosanders, lots of Goldeneyes, six Ruddy Ducks, all females, and eventually a nice close flock of Smew (3 smart males and 1 female) on the British Airways pit. By the time we found the Smew we were strung out all along the bank, each of us peering through his or her own small gap in the bushes. I am most grateful to Colin who realised that most of us could not see them, due to the obstructing vegetation, and who sped along the path and pointed them out to everyone. In addition we saw all the usual ducks, about 20 Ring-necked Parakeets and a wintering Chiffchaff.
In the afternoon we went to a quiet area of the Crown land, near Ascot. It was quiet for birds too, with an almost total lack of any kind of passerines. We had a finch free afternoon in an area usually guaranteed to produce the usual winter mixed parties of tits, Redpoll, Siskin and the like. As compensation, we did see 8 Mandarins and a brave Sparrowhawk (or was it just too wet to fly?) who sat in a tree and let us pass very close by.
The species count for the day was a respectable 55, but many of the passerines were single birds. And where were the finches? I recorded just one Chaffinch and no other finches, buntings or sparrow at all.