Tice's Meadow January 2026
Rushmoor Community Lottery
The TMBG have a page
on the Rushmoor Community Lottery website to help us raise money for the nature
reserve. Tickets cost £1 per
week, of which, we will receive 50p per ticket and other local good causes
receive 10p. There is a top prize of £25,000 for matching all 6 numbers and a
range of other prizes. Click the link below to go to our page, or scan
the QR code on the poster. Thank
you for your support.
Volunteer Work Parties
Surrey County Council are now running all
volunteer work parties at Tice's Meadow in partnership with the TMBG - see
below for details.
Tice’s
Meadow January 2026 Overall Bird Count
The bird
year list now stands at 80 species. It was 72 (plus 2 escapes) in 2025.
80 bird
species were reported in the recording area during January.
Thank you to
everyone who reports their sightings.
For the most up to date
information, click on the link below and Follow.
We have launched our
new Facebook Group page where everyone can post their Tice’s Meadow related
pictures, sightings, etc.
Friends of Tice’s
Meadow | Facebook
A selection of
sightings follows.
Thursday 1st
January
Keeping with
tradition, the Tice's Meadow Bird Group bird year list starts on January 1st.
The count started at dawn with a heavy frost on the ground and an air
temperature of a chilly 1 °C rising to 6 °C with sunshine early before clouding
over. The first bird heard but not seen was a Carrion Crow.
The bird of the day
was an unexpected female Pintail in the Workings, seen from the Hanson Hide
(last recorded on 21st October 2025), closely followed by the wintering Dunlin
which has been present since 13th October 2025.
The birds seen during
the day within the recording area.
1 Black-headed Gull, 2
Blackbird, 3 Blue Tit, 4 Bullfinch, 5 Canada Goose, 6 Carrion Crow, 7 Chaffinch,
8 Chiffchaff, 9 Coal Tit, 10 Collared Dove, 11 Common Gull, 12 Coot, 13
Cormorant, 14 Dunlin, 15 Dunnock, 16 Egyptian Goose, 17 Feral Pigeon, 18
Fieldfare, 19 Gadwall, 20 Goldcrest, 21 Goldfinch, 22 Great Spotted Woodpecker,
23 Great Tit, 24 Green Sandpiper, 25 Green Woodpecker, 26 Greenfinch, 27 Grey
Heron, 28 Grey Wagtail, 29 Herring Gull, 30 House Sparrow, 31 Jackdaw, 32 Jay, 33
Lapwing, 34 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 35 Little Egret, 36 Little Grebe, 37
Long-tailed Tit, 38 Magpie, 39 Mallard, 40 Moorhen, 41 Mute Swan, 42 Nuthatch, 43
Peregrine, 44 Pied Wagtail, 45 Pintail, 46 Pochard, 47 Red Kite, 48 Redpoll, 49
Redwing, 50 Reed Bunting, 51 Robin, 52 Shoveler, 53 Siskin, 54 Snipe, 55 Song
Thrush, 56 Starling, 57 Stock Dove, 58 Stonechat, 59 Teal, 60 Treecreeper, 61
Tufted Duck, 62 Wigeon, 63 Woodpigeon, 64 Wren
There will be plenty
of birds to add to this list during the year. To add to this list go to the
following options:- Post on Facebook at Friends of Tice’s Meadow, by email to
Ticesmeadow@hotmail.co.uk, X (formerly Twitter) @TicesMeadow , Birdtrack (bto.org) or EBird (EBird.org). All records are entered onto the Surrey
Bird Club database.
Away from the birds
also recorded were 14 Grey Squirrel, 4 Roe Deer and 2 Fox
 |
| Female Pintail in the Workings © Kevin Duncan |
Friday 2nd
January
2 Bullfinch, Buzzard,
Coal Tit, Dunlin, 6 Jack Snipe, Kestrel, 5 Meadow Pipit, Nuthatch, Peregrine,
Pied Wagtail, Pintail, Skylark, 79 Snipe, Treecreeper, Water Rail
Water testing as part
of the Blackwater Valley Action for Rivers initiative today yielded, once again,
only slight traces of nitrates and zero phosphates. The river running through
the reserve is in a very good condition. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said
further downstream, with 4 sewage treatment works servicing 250,000 homes
between Tice's and Moor Green Lakes on just 13 miles of river, the situation
there is very poor.
 |
| Testing for the water quality of the River Blackwater © Gillian Bamford |
The annual winter Snipe survey. Results, 79 Snipe and 6 Jack Snipe counted using the British
Trust for Ornithology approved rope survey method. Roger, our licenced bird
ringer, along with 10 volunteers plus a counter/recorder walked in a line
holding a rope to flush the birds from the grassy meadow areas in front of the Mound
and to the west of the main lake.
 |
| Snipe survey in the Meadow © Gillian Bamford |
 |
| A sunny meadow © Jack Spencer |
 |
| Robin © Richard Wright |
Saturday 3rd
January
No reported
sightings.
Sunday 4th
January
Chaffinch, 2
Chiffchaff, Great Crested Grebe, 2 Peregrine, Red Kite, 2 Stonechat
 |
| Peregrine Falcon |
 |
| Phil and Bunter the Robin |
 |
| Stonechat © Jon Hawkins |
Monday 5th
January
Grey Wagtail, 4 Mute
Swan, Redpoll, Siskin
Tuesday 6th
January
20 Canada Goose,
Chaffinch, Jay, Peregrine, Stonechat
Wednesday 7th
January
Bullfinch, 4 Egyptian
Goose, Goldcrest, Goosander, Great Crested Grebe, Green Sandpiper, 3 Grey
Heron, 2 Jay, Little Egret, 3 Mute Swan, Nuthatch, Peregrine, 7 Siskin,
Sparrowhawk, 2 Song Thrush
From the pen of
Myung-hye Chun:
Today I visited
Tice’s Meadow to do a winter wildflower survey. It was my first visit to the
meadow this year, so happy new year to everyone! What I really wanted to do was
to include survey results for the New Year Plant Hunt, but couldn’t fit another
date after having done for both at the Old Bourne Churchyard and St. Peter’s
Churchyard/Greenlane Cemetery in Wrecclesham. Nonetheless, I still wanted to
survey Tice’s to make a species list and record them for the Next Year Plant
Hunt and glad that I did.
Today was another
freezing day, but the winter sunshine was glorious. The path I chose was the
route we walk for the butterfly transect except Low Lane. Most people at Tice’s
always walk, looking into the sky, but I always walk like I dropped my card somewhere.
After bumping into Peter which was very nice, it was a very quiet day and I
hugely enjoyed recording plants at Tice’s. The NYPH itself only counts
wildflowers in bloom, but I recorded wildflowers including not in flower.
Finding blooming flowers in the middle of dead winter was nice, but for me,
recording plants which are either dead or vegetative only were also hugely
enjoyable, waiting for the spring to come.
 |
| Common Reed, Phragmites australis © Myung-hye Chun |
Thursday 8th
January
Common Gull, 2
Egyptian Goose
Friday 9th
January
No reported
sightings.
Saturday 10th
January
Blackcap, 55 Canada
Goose, Chiffchaff, 6 Egyptian Goose, Green Sandpiper, Green Woodpecker, Grey
Wagtail, Greylag Goose, 2 Peregrine, 5 Redpoll, 5 Redwing, 2 Reed Bunting, 6
Siskin, 27 Starling, Treecreeper
Sunday 11th
January
3 Common Gull, 286
Coot, Great Black-backed Gull, Green Sandpiper, 26 Lapwing, 2 Little Grebe, 9
Mallard, 33 Moorhen, 2 Peregrine, 41 Pochard, 122 Shoveler, 95 Teal,
Treecreeper, 21 Tufted Duck
Monday 12th
January
12 Collared Dove, Great White Egret, Green
Sandpiper, Peregrine
Tuesday 13th
January
No reported
sightings.
Wednesday 14th
January
6 Cormorant, 4 Green Sandpiper,
Green Woodpecker, 165 Lapwing, 2 Little Egret, 2 Little Grebe
Thursday 15th
January
No reported sightings.
Friday 16th
January
Goldcrest, Green Sandpiper,
Little Egret, 2 Little Grebe, Peregrine, Treecreeper
Saturday 17th
January
Great White Egret,
2 Green Sandpiper, Green Woodpecker, Reed Bunting, Shelduck
Phil Barnbrook – “As
part of the ongoing monitoring for the Sand Martins, we carried out an
inspection of the nest boxes this morning, and did a bit of maintenance.
Hopefully we may get some interest in the nest boxes this coming breeding
season, if the water levels stay low going forward.”
 |
| Rear of old Sand Martin bank |
Another maintenance
duty carried out on the Nature Reserve this calm morning, an essential task so
the water levels can be recorded for the site.
 |
| Cleaning water level marker post © Phil Barnbrook |
Sunday 18th
January
134 Black-headed
Gull, 2 Bullfinch, Common Gull, 186 Lapwing, Little Egret, 32 Moorhen, Reed
Bunting, Peregrine, 3 Stonechat
 |
| Lapwing © Steve Sparks |
Monday 19th
January
No reported
sightings.
Tuesday 20th
January
Buzzard, 15 Carrion
Crow, Green Sandpiper, Green Woodpecker
Wednesday 21st
January
Jay, Great White
Egret, Little Egret
Thursday 22nd
January
Barn Owl, 2 Grey
Heron
 |
| Pair of Barn Owls on the live cam |
Friday 23rd
January
No reported sightings
Today's volunteer
work task involved more clearance of brambles encroaching onto the path and the
creation of open scallops to increase variations of habitat to help
biodiversity.
Thanks to everyone
who came along!
 |
 |
Saturday 24th
January
Buzzard, 17
Cormorant, Green Sandpiper, Grey Wagtail, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Little Egret,
Peregrine
Sunday 25th
January
11 Cormorant, 3 Grey
Heron, 291 Lapwing, Peregrine, 2 Stonechat, 28 Wigeon
Monday 26th
January
2 Egyptian Goose,
Green Sandpiper, Stonechat
Tuesday 27th
January
No reported
sightings.
Wednesday 28th
January
7 Cormorant, 2 Green Sandpiper,
Green Woodpecker, 2 Reed Bunting
Thursday 29th
January
Buzzard, 3 Green
Sandpiper, Green Woodpecker, 2 Snipe, Sparrowhawk
Friday 30th
January
No reported
sightings.
Thank you to the
twenty or so volunteers who came to Tice's for today's task - the removal of
willow from the reedbeds.
Myung-hye Chun – “It
was nice to be back to the Friday work session at Tice’s Meadow. Working at the
reedbeds in the winter months is one of my favourite things to do and being
surrounded by such lovely people like the Surrey Choices Growth Team was an
added bonus. They always lift my mood up in the middle of muddy winter at
Tice’s. Today was a particularly good day because our volunteers were not only
visited by Bentley but also by 5 month old Bruce!!”
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|
Saturday 31st
January
Fieldfare, 2 Green
Sandpiper, 2 Peregrine, 3 Snipe, Stonechat
Paul Bamford did the
monthly water testing today with the river running pretty high after this week’s
heavy rainfall. Highest nitrate reading 0.5-1.0 mg/L so far recorded and
negligible phosphate reading.
 |
| River Blackwater at Pea Bridge |