Foot It: Day 1

I'm back in England for a while so time to kickstart January's Foot It challenge. To see as many species of birds on foot from home.

The Basingstoke canal runs across the end of my road near in north Surrey so it's an ideal place to start with a walk into the nearby village of West Byfleet.

The canal has been restored in recent years and although not navagable at this point it provides plenty of woodland habitat for birds along the tow path.

First birds of the challenge were some feral pigeon roosting under the bridge and several mallard on the canal below it. A family of mute swan were dabbling in the shallows and several moorhen ran across the bath to the safety of the water.

High in the old oaks were jackdaw and woodpigeon sat silently amongst the ivy. The first decent birds were two nuthatch foraging along an old oak branch and a great-spotted woodpecker in an adjacent dead oak. But the most unusual bird which I don't ever remember seeing in the area was a goldcrest, Britains smallest bird.

Easily picked out by their calls were a couple of rose-ringed parakeet, a now common intyroduced bird in the south-east counties.

So, 23 species of birds in a 15 minute walk and 40% of my target list seen in the first day.

1. Mute swan
2. Mallard
3. Moorhen
4. Black-headed gull
5. Feral pigeon
6. Wood pigeon
7. Collared dove
8. Rose-ringed parakeet
9. Great-spotted woodpecker
10. Robin
11. Song thrush
12. Blackbird
13. Great tit
14. Blue tit
15. Long-tailed tit
16. Nuthatch
17. Magpie
18. Jackdaw
19. Crow
20. Starling
21. House sparrow
22. Chaffinch
23. Goldcrest