Keeping them peeled for 2014

I'm going to have a crack at a local year list again this year. I kicked off on a pre-dawn, pitch black walk through Hockley Woods. I had a bit of an iffy Tawny Owl call among the Carrion crow cacophony so left it off my list. I stood at the edge of the wood and watched the hoards of crows flying south with the odd Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming in the first shades of blue into the sky. My focus was on an area of the woods where 3 Firecrests had been seen the previous day with no luck, so I headed for a very similar area along the same stream but further East and I didn't have to wait. There was a female Firecrest, typically mobile, but giving great views. That was undoubtedly the moment of the day. I got up to 50+ species on my way to my previously set target of 165 species.