Review of the year 2022

Summary

I've had a much quieter year on the blogging front that is for certain. With patch issues detailed below I've been spending time exploring new and different pursuits. Long-term I'll be concentrating my birding around spring & autumn, being chased off the patch by the game keeper to count 1 Heron & 6 Gadwall is now something I'd rather not do.

Salford Priors Summary

The least said the better despite our best efforts. Limited access, barberd wire on egress points made it very difficult. Everyones visits were reduced which in turn effected our total numbers. The total for the year was 129, three down on previous year but 15 down from 2020. The highlight was the Wryneck, what a bird. It was just a shame it was so illusive. Visits will continue when possible but long gone are the days of sightings daily. 

UK Life List 

Just the eight lifers in 2022 but some top grade quality birds many of which are once a decade sightings. 

1) American Robin (East Sussex) March

2) Eleonara's Falcon (Kent) June

3) Red-tailed Shrike (East Riding of Yorkshire) July

4) Cape Gull (Cambridgeshire) August

5) Common Nighthawk (Oxfordshire) September

6) Blackburnian Warbler (Isle of Scilly) October

7) Pallid Swift (Isles of Scilly) October

8) Alpine Accentor (Suffolk) October

My birds of the year

My birds of the year are never decided on the rarest. l. I like to assess the whole experience, views of the bird, journey, ease of experience & also habitat.

1) Blackburnian Warbler (Isle of Scilly) - My week on the magical islands delivered yet again. I was so pleased I resisted temptation not to twitch the stunning american wood warbler. It was all the more special I got to enjoy it with the Scilly house family.

2) Common Nighthawk (Oxfordshire) - After a disappointing Shetland experience in 2021 the twitchers cleaned up in 2022 making it a bitter pill to swallow espically as there was a Whites Thrush. However, compenstation was delivered with a Common Nighthawk. I'd never shut my laptop so quick. Even better I could enjoy the bird with both Ian & the Squire.

3) Red-tailed Shrike (East Riding of Yorkshire) - A no nonsence planned twitch that went to perfection with the Squire & Chris Lane. We all enjoyed some fantastic views of the Shrike feeding along a hedgerow on a private farm. The £10 fee to see the bird was money well spend.

4) Pallid Swift (Isles of Scilly) -  Twitching Swifts from the midlands is a road to madness so to see a Pallid whizzing over my head on the Garrison was a great experience. It was weirdly on the same day as the Blachburnian Warbler. What a double! Get the whiskey out.

5) American Robin (Eastborne) - I thought this species was over due & it became the first lifer of the year. It's never easy birding on a housing estate however on this occasion there were no issues as the bird popped out quickly allowing for some crowd pleasing views before I headed home to the midlands.

6) Eleonara's Falcon (Kent) - Since my interest in seeing rare birds, Eleonara's Falcon seemed to be just fly pasts that are impossible to twitch. So when this individual took up residence in Kent we organised a team twitch where we all had an excellent experience.

7) Dotterel (Gloucestershire) - Dotteral have remained a species I've always wanted to watch at close quarters. When three individuals stick on Cleeve Hill (Cheltenham), I finished early one afternoon and because of some heavy showers I had the pleasure to enjoy the birds completley on my own. Just magical.

8) Garganey (Worcestershire) - Well...well...well. a pair on Garganey on small pool just a mile from home! I'd never heard a Garganey call before and this male was in great voice. The pair stayed for around ten days. What a pair of birds.

9) Wryneck (Warwickshire) - PATCH GOLD ! - Many thanks to Francis Peplow who dug this beauty out on the service at the pits. A absolutley awesome find! 

10) Cape Gull (Cambridgeshire) - Mmmmm, first for Britain and yet only no.10 ! Well let's be honest this bruit of a bird was no oil painting. Take the tick, move on.

Review of the Year 2021

 

Birdtrack sightings

2021 saw me reach my 50th birthday, I ended up seeing 255 species of bird and adding 19 lifers to my UK life list. Those numbers are even more remarkable given I'd decided to prioritise some other interests including my crown green bowling and race horse ownership. 

Visiting Shetland in the Autumn and the Scillies in the summer were both long term bucket list destinations I acheived. Despite some amazing accommodation on Shetland I didn't really take to the place whilst Scilly in the summer was a delight. 

In these uncertain Covid times you have to be grateful for your families, friends and your own good health.

Many thanks to Mrs D, the Captain & the Squire for sharing some of the experiences throughout the year.

Butterflies

Northern Brown Argus

Monarch

Mountain Ringlet

Chequered Skipper

I'm unsure how many species I saw during the season but I did complete the rest of the UK species. This includes Mount Ringlet, Northern Brown Argus & Chequered Skipper and in addition I saw a stunning Monarch on Shetland.

Salford Priors summary

The pits proved to be difficult with much reduced access and no management of the habitats. We recorded thirteen less species than in 2020 with the highlights limited to a male Little Bunting, Arctic Tern, Garganey, Goldeneye, Goshawk, Great White Egret, Kittiwake, Marsh Harrier, Merlin, Sandwich Tern, Turtle Dove, Russian White-fronted Geese & a Ringed-neck Parakeet was a first for the site. Many thanks to all those who contributed.

UK Life list

1) Bufflehead (West Midlands) February (Observed on Loughbrough University run)

2) Northern Mockingbird (Devon) March

3) American Herring Gull (Cornwall)

4) White-throated Sparrow (Sussex)

5) Whiskered Tern (Dorset)

6) Tawny Pipit (Dorset)

7) River Warbler (Somerset)

8) Roller (Suffolk)

9) Black-browed Albatross (Yorkshire)

10) Western Rufous Turtle Dove (East Riding of Yorkshire)

11) Western Sandpiper (Norfolk)

12) Wilson's Petrel (Isles of Scilly)

13) White-tailed Lapwing (Yorkshire) August

14) Green Warbler (Yorkshire)

15) Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Shetland)

16) Long-toed Stint (Yorkshire)

17) Western Subalpine Warber (Isles of Scilly)

18) Red-breasted Goose (Essex)

19) Belted Kingfisher (Lancashire) December

My birds of the year

My birds of the year are never decided on most rarest. If that was the case the Green Warbler, Belted Kingfisher and Long-toed Stint would head the top of charts. The Northern Mockingbird was very enjoyable as it was the first day out of the area after lockdown and we doubled it up with seeing the American Herring Gull. I like to assess the whole experience, views of the bird, journey, ease of experience & also habitat.

1) Northern Mockingbird (Devon) March - I didn't need any second invitation to take in the Exmouth Northern Mockingbird. It's never great birding in residential area's but I got very lucky with the birds showing amazingly well without any fuss or stress to the locals. What a bird! Loved it.

2) Roller (Suffolk) June - Whilst at least bi-annual, I've never had chance to see a Roller before. Previous sightings were either to far away or the bird never hung around. This beauty on the Norfolk/Suffolk border was a real beauty that hung around and entertained many hundreds of birders.

3) Belted Kingfisher (Lancashire) December- Winter birds account to a very small percentage of my lifers so to get a rarity such a Belted Kingfisher in the days before Christmas was quite unbelievable.

4) Black-browed Albatross (Yorkshire)- I was totally gripped last year when Albert the Albatross treated birders to amazing views last year. As soon as news broke of his return I was off to Yorkshire on one of many trips to Yorkshire in 2021.

5) Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Shetland)- The eastern winds never arrived for our trip to Shetland which was disappointing however we did have a great day twitching this Rose-coloured Grosbreak. The above image was taken on our second walk up a steep hill on Unst after our first views with only satisfactory. Any American bird in a calendar year is welcome but to finish with seven this year is amazing. 

6) Long-toed Stint (Yorkshire)- Our departure from Shetland couldn't have been better timed for this super blocker. The Captain drove like Lewis Hamilton from Aberdeen for us to round off our holiday in great style.

7) Western Subalpine Warber (Isles of Scilly)- This twitch had everything. We were on the wrong island, took early boat, then pulled a favour with a lift to get to Telegraph where the bird was. As soon as we got out the mini bus we were greeted with negative news! Thankfully Adam convinced us to ignore the news & go through hedgerow with a fine toothed comb.

8) White-tailed Lapwing (Yorkshire)- We were greeted with negative news when we arrived on site after a 2 1/2 hour drive so we headed out on the reserve to enjoy the selection of waders available to view. And then like magic the graceful Lapwing flew in from our left and did a nice circle of the scrape before landing in front of us. Magical moments.......

9) River Warbler (Somerset)- Another species I could have only dreamt of seeing at the start of 2021. There is plenty of habitat on the Somerset levels so we were very lucky this bird took up teritory fairly close to a public footpath enabling birders to get some amazing views.

10) White-throated Sparrow (Sussex) - Sussex & Kent are counties I never enjoy driving to, however on this occasion I was spared the pain when the Captain drove me & the Squire to see this little beauty feeding under a picnic table on some allotments.

I'd like to wish all my blog readers a very happy New Year and very prosperous birdy 2022.

 

Review of the year 2020

The Covid pandemic has dominated the year for us all. We have all had to endure not seeing close family and adapt to new ways of working that are very often solitary. Two national lockdowns and the tiered system stopped some activity yet I was very grateful of a fantastic year with a couple of trips to north-east, Spurn and the Scillies. The lockdowns only really effected the start of the butterfly season and after that point I had some fantastic days in the sunshine. It has certainly helped having a wide range of interests when birding was limited. I really enjoyed the extra time around home researching the family tree of which I now have over 900 members, watching plenty of cricket at the club & on TV, and of course following the Saints. It seems that more people than ever are birding and taking an interest in nature.

It was a fantastic butterfly season thanks to some very favourable weather. I managed to record 53 species whilst my best find was a Clouded Yellow at Salford Priors. I have just four species left in the UK to see, fingers crossed we have the current travel restrictions lifted.

Salford Priors Gravel Pits Summary

Access remains very problematic yet I’ve still recorded over 400 hours on site this year, working from home and lockdown certainly gave me more time to visit early each day in spring & autumn. The land remains under lease to CEMEX and will do for another two years due to the slow speed of the restoration.
 

The water levels were too high during the spring, the lower levels in Autumn did help us record a number of passage wader species. High water levels prevented breeding of Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Gadwall and Tufted Duck.

There was strong evidence that Common Redstarts & Wheatear both bred this year. Whilst no nests were observed very young juveniles were seen of both species. Other breeding successes included Cuckoo, Little Ringed Plover, Treecreeper, Sparrowhawk, Reed & Sedge Warbler. Two Turtle Dove was the maximum count of the year however we concluded that only one was a summer resident.

We recorded 143 species in the year, an increase of six from 2019. Highlights included the first record of Cattle Egret (in late November) and second records for White-fronted Goose, Knot, Nightingale and Wood Warbler. Other highlights included Arctic Tern, Black-tailed Godwit, Cetti’s Warbler, Garganey, Great White Egret, Marsh Harrier, Pink-footed Goose, Ruddy Duck, Spotted Flycatcher, Wood Warbler and Woodcock.

Many thanks to all those who contributed throughout the year and special recognition to Jon who continues to undertake monthly counts and offers much needed encouragement.

UK Life List

I observed fourteen new species in the year on my life list, which contained Caspian Tern, Long-tailed Skua & Icterine Warbler, all of which have been on my most wanted list for a number of years.

1) Scottish Crossbill (Scotland) January

2) Black Scoter (Northumberland) January

3) Caspain Tern (Norfolk) June

4) Greenish Warbler (Spurn, East Riding) June 

5) Asian Desert Warbler (Northumberland) June

6) Icterine Warbler (Spurn, East Riding) August

7) Long-tailed Skua (Spurn, East Riding) September

8) Franklin’s Gull (West Yorkshire) September

9) Western Bonelli’s Warbler (Spurn, East Riding) October

10) Taiga Flycatcher (Befordshire) October 

11) Brown Shrike (Northumberland) October

12) Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin (Norfolk) October

13) Indigo Bunting (St.Agnes, Scillies) October

14) Sociable Lapwing (Cornwall) December

* Bearded Vulture (Derbyshire) August

Many thanks to the Squire, Butterfly Dave, Chris, the Captain, @1st Birdoftheday,  the Scilly crew, Mark & Lloyd for their company throughout the year. 

My Birds of the Year

My favourite ten birds of the 250 I observed in 2020 based on the experience & location are the following : 

1) Asian Desert Warbler - A cracking one day mega twitch to Holy Island, one of my favourite places.

2) Indigo Bunting - Right place, right time. Who says teachers week doesn't deliver anyone. The late ones are always the rarest ones. 

3) Western Bonelli’s Warbler - When winds blow from the east Spurn is always worth a gamble. Impossible to have a bad days birding there.

4) Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin - The mega UK blocker came up as an alert as we closed in for Holy Island's Brown Shrike. We were never going to change direction and had a cracking day. I did go the next morning once reported out of duty more than anything.

5) Icterine Warbler - This species has been on my wanted list for years and some how this year I saw three! Spoilt for choice.

6) Sociable Lapwing - Two attempts made it all the sweeter. A genuine Christmas bonus.

7) Brown Shrike - I missed a very showy Brown Shrike when on a weeks holiday in Devon so when this cracking bird game up on Holy Island a plan was quickly hatched.

8) Greenish Warbler - We earned this one with a walk to the tip of Spurn Point. We were rewarded with excellent views of the bird singing.

9) Collared Pratincole - A spring surpise down the M5. Who doesn't enjoy an amazing flying Pratincole.

10) Taiga Flycatcher - Part of the Autumn double. This little stunner showed perfectly before he headed further north for the Brown Shrike.

Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy and bird-filled New Year!