2012 Roundup

I spent the last day of the year in the office and despite being confined to my desk, my final bird of 2012 was a splendid male Sparrowhawk as it swooped over the top of a house nearby - Excellent!

Looking back at this year, I have managed to finally see some of my unseen birds, Caspian Gull, Sooty Shearwater and Balearic Shearwater but others like Red Backed Shrike still manage to evade me.  A great year also for statistics with a grand total of 251 species seen with 20 being lifers.  This has now taken me over the scary total of 300 for the UK.

Bird of the year is difficult to decide on - Possibly the Black Winged Stilt in Oxfordshire or Balearic Shearwater off the Scillionian III.  Although, Capercaille and Ptarmigan are right up there especially as they have been birds that I have wanted to see for over 30 years.  However the winner goes to........................

And my birder's wife awards her winner to..............................

 What a great photograph!!

So, next year beckons and while a bird watcher would always hope to top his/her year list from the previous year, I doubt I will ever achieve a total like I did this year (unless I take many holidays indeed and go part time) and I therefore just want to contend with seeing a few on my unseen list next year, notably, Red Backed Shrike and Pomarine Skua - Let's just wait and see.

Happy New Year.