A trip down south

As my birder's wife was away for the weekend I decided to go and visit my sister down in Hampshire.  It is always worth visiting her, not only to catch up but also to sample the New Forest specialities.

Spoonbills roosting

So, I decided to take the day off work on Friday and arrived in Hampshire at about 8:00am and carried on through to Dorset to Purbeck.  My main aim was to see if I could find the Surf Scoter in Poole Harbour.  However, after looking from several vantage points I could not find anything out on the water, although I was hindered by the appalling conditions.  I decided to make my way to Arne Rspb instead which was nearby to at least see some interesting species like Spoonbill and Dartford Warbler.  For the morning I headed to the most northern hide and was rewarded with views of 16 Spoonbill, 1 Avocet, about 15 Roe Deer and two Raven. After a brief lunch at my car I then headed south to the heath and after a walk around, soon heard the alarm call of a Dartford Warbler and after a few minutes caught a quick glimpse of the bird as it perched on top of a piece of gorse before disappearing out of sight.  The way back to the car gave me views of the resident Sika Deer.

I then decided to make my way back to my sister's house via a couple of stops.  The first stop was Blackwater Arboretum to look for Hawfinches and as I walked up the path I immediately saw 3 fly over, followed by 5 Common Crossbills and after  quick search found 2 more Hawfinches calling from the top of some trees.  The second stop was Hawkhill Inclosure which has usually been good in the past, but due to the conditions, it was devoid of birds, so I headed back for warmth and to get dry.

The following morning I decided to head out for some local birding nearby to where my sister lives and chanced upon some friendly birders, one who is the assistant county recorder for Hampshire.  Birds of note for that walk were a couple of Pintail and my first Cetti's Warbler for the year. The rest of the day was devoted to shopping near Portsmouth and I resisted the temptation of going for the overwintering Ring Billed Gull at Gosport.  In the afternoon I then headed out for some more local birding and watched Cormorants come into to roost on the local lakes.

Decisions

In this week of non birding, I have been thinking about how I want to bird this year.

I have already made the choice that I will not actively pursue a year list.  This decision was made as I have no trips to the Scillies or Shetlands booked (yet!!).  Last year I became a bit too obsessive and I also feel that the next target would have to be 300 if I was to do a year list, which would probably leave me with a not so understanding birder's wife (or it may not leave with a birder's wife at all).

My birder's wife has already made the choice that she will have her own very casual year list and I will join her in this and may then just only try for new species this year, although that alone is a bit hollow and non fulfilling.

I have thought about signing up and registering with the patch birding initiative but for one reason or another have decided not to and am reporting my sightings through Birdtrack anyway.

So, after much umming and ahhing I have decided to do the following:-

1/ I find the whole idea of patch birding and self finding to be a very encouraging thing and intend to try and bird within walking distance of my home on a more frequent basis this year.
2/  I intend to find my own patch and work it as often as possible (I am going for an investigative trip this weekend).
3/  I intend to build on my life list and twitch just new birds.
4/  For every twitch or birding trip that I make which is over 10 miles from my house, I in turn will do an extra visit to my surrounding area or chosen patch.

Onwards and upwards.........

Great Grey Shrike and Brambling added to my Birders Wife's year list

As we were visiting friends in Kidderminster today, I took the opportunity to visit Hopwood again (being just a mile off the motorway) to show my Birders Wife the Great Grey Shrike.  The bird was showing as we arrived but was very distant and therefore we did not stay long and instead decided to head for the Lickey Hills to find the flock of Bramblings currently residing there.  The flock had been reported as not being that far into the wood, which was fortunate as we were not dressed for birding and we soon found them about 50m from the road (with help from a friendly birder who gave us directions) - Mission accomplished and we headed onto Kidderminster for Sunday lunch.

Hampton Wood

Another day off and I took a stroll round Hampton Wood.  There was not really much around at all.  The most activity was around the feeders with the Nuthatch showing nicely but unfortunately no showing of any Marsh Tits.

Nuthatch

New Year - New List mmmm!!!

Lesser Redpoll

I decided to take today and tomorrow off work and used the fine day as an opportunity to go and look for the debated Arctic/Mealy Redpoll which has been occupying a bean field in Worcestershire.

Despite being a fine day, it was bitterly cold in the Worcestershire countryside.  The overgrown edge of the field was attracting a lot of activity, large mixed finch flocks of about 50+ but they were constantly on the move flitting from the crop to the golf course on the otherside of the road and it was extremely hard to pin down any birds.  I finally managed good views of a few Mealy Redpolls amongst the Lessers Redpolls and other birds within the flock were the odd Greenfinch with many Goldfinches.

Lesser Redpoll

After about two hours of waiting around, there was just me and another birder left and as I prepared to depart also, a whitish Redpoll alighted in a tree above us on its own and then promptly flew into the crop field and disappeared.  It could have been the Arctic Redpoll but the view was to brief to say for sure.  As my feet were about to turn into blocks of ice, I decided to drive home, stopping by Hopwood for the Great Grey Shrike who eventually appeared after an hour and delighted the patient crowd.

Goldfinch

A frustrating day's birding with lots of hanging around but it was nice to be outside.

Review of 2013

Review of 2013

At the start of 2013 I had made the decision to take the year off from year bird listing (listing all species of birds seen throughout the year).  However, as we crept into February and with a big trip to the Shetlands booked for October, I changed my mind and decided to go for it.  Unfortunately, being that I am in full time employment, restricted by the days I take off and do not have unlimited resources, I will never be able to see as many species as the “big listers” out there and it is therefore just as well that competitive birding is “not my bag” (I prefer to only compete against myself and beat my own previous records).

Last year was a record year for me with the 250 species limit almost broken.  This year, I made things harder for myself; I continued to disallow any birds where there were possible question marks over identification and in addition I also decided to only use the BOURC listing of recognised species instead of the UK400 Club listing (that includes sub species).  Being stricter in my listing has resulted in revisiting previous year lists and revising their totals which means that last year’s reached 247 (instead of 251 which I had previously noted down).

So, the final tally as per BOURC guidelines for this year is 272 and per UK400 Club guidelines is 276 (I have disallowed a Crossbill sp which I saw briefly at Loch Garten in April which could have been a Scottish Crossbill but I will never know).  Both scores are quite respectable I imagine for someone who cannot go birding all the time.

The year had its positives and negatives moments and below are a few of each:-

Positives

• Meeting some friendly birders in Warwickshire (finally).
• Experiencing the Cairngorms in spring and the Shetlands in autumn, both different but equally memorable.
• Meeting new people and making new friends in the Shetlands.
• The final big twitch of the year to see the Brünnich’s Guillemot.
• Helping friends finally obtain sightings of their bogey birds.

Negatives

• Having to put up with miserable birders in all kinds of places.  I know we all have “off” days but it just seems that I meet more miserable people in birding circles than I do in any other walks of life.  Why carry on with something if it makes you so miserable?
• Being subjected to the competitive side of birding.  Why let it destroy friendships? Hobbies are hobbies and are there to be enjoyed.  I love sharing my hobby with others who have the same interest as me and am thoroughly pleased for them if they see a new species that I may not have hooked up with yet and this is because I only compete against myself.  Saying that though, it is always a laugh to send the odd “triumphant text” to those who can take it when a new species is obtained.

Highlights of the year

• Watching a Swift as it came in off the Channel and flew right over my head – magic!
• Seeing a Roller, a bird that I have wanted to see since I was 8 years old.
• Seeing Bee eaters for the first time (even though it was not in the UK but was in the outskirts of Rome).
• I had two target birds for the year – Red-backed Shrike and Pomarine Skua, achieved by the Autumn but a bit of an anticlimax for both even though I have been waiting to see them for many years.
• Finally seeing a Subalpine Warbler in the UK (after dipping on one in Northumberland) a couple of years ago.

Next Year

So, what does next year have in store?  Not sure at the moment, I may give up on year listing and concentrate on twitching but then I may not - Only time will tell as the year unfolds.

I do have a few target birds and they include:-

• Red Footed Falcon.
• Surf Scoter.
• White Stork.
• Common Rosefinch.

And finally - Photo of the year

Sedge Warbler at Otmoor in June

Have a happy new year and enjoy your birding whether it is twitching or patch listing.

Brambling no longer a bogey bird

Great Grey Shrike

After scouting the surrounding countryside recently for a Brambling to show our Christmas guests (for whom Brambling is a bogey bird), we finally ran out of time today and decided that as I had failed in finding one for them myself we would go and twitch some instead.

En route, we took a slight detour to give them another lifer in the form of the obliging Great Grey Shrike at Hopwood - A very handsome bird indeed.

We then proceeded to Lickey Hills in search of Brambling....the bogey bird of the moment.  After walking amongst the trees for about half an hour, we finally saw a large flock of finches flying to a large Beech and followed them at a distance.  I then heard the unforgettable squawking call of a Brambling and we soon were watching them as they searched for seeds on the woodland floor.  Unfortunately the wood is disturbed greatly by dog walkers which kept on scaring the birds away.  It took about half an hour before one of my guests managed to get a really good view of the birds so that she would be confident to identify Bramblings herself going forward.

A good morning's birding with two lifers for my guests and a bogey bird finally broken.