Endings, beginnings

2013, 205

For those who follow such things as my random ramblings about year lists and others, I guess it’s time for an update on how 2013 ended.

My bird list for the year finished on 205 species. Quite respectable considering the majority of my birding was done once a week at The Point, with odd forays to other nearby sites, monthly WeBS Counts (see WeBS: Wet every Bl**dy Sunday?), some seawatching and one visit to Somerset in March. That trip resulted in the only addition to my ‘Life List’, as already reported in mid-year updates, a Pied-billed Grebe, all the way from the USA.  The biggest surprises came from not recording a Great Skua (Bonxie), despite much sea-watching, and in view of having seen 76 in four hours one morning in 2012.  As for the much rarer Pomarine Skua, well, I saw six of those, four in one morning.  Only seeing one Treecreeper between January and November, then seeing three in the garden before the end of the year, and I’ve already seen two this year.  An adult Sabine’s Gull, another Yankee, was the highlight of a sea watch on the morning of the ‘hurricane force winds’ that were supposedly going to cause devastation across southern England, and the third one I’ve seen in Hampshire.  Had it not been for the gull it would have been a giant anti-climax.  The sea-watching was rubbish.  As the winds built the day before, I recorded two Cormorant and two Curlew in two hours, not worth going out for.  Other than that, there were no real big surprises amongst things that made the list and things that were missing.  This was my first year in I don’t know how long when I didn’t manage to find myself another Yankee, the Ring-billed Gull.

Or is it 206?

However, my year list could be 206 depending on whether I ‘count’ the Todd’s Canada Goose I found in October, was it a genuine wild vagrant all the way from eastern USA? or was it an escape? (and if so, why keep a Canada Goose in a collection when there are many nicer geese you could keep?) and why haven’t I been able to find it amongst all the Canada Geese since? while the weird hybrid Canada x Greylag hybrid has stuck around since turning up on the same day.

Todd’s Canada Goose, centre left on top of the bank. It’s the bird with a shorter neck and darker breast.
Can I ‘count it’ though?

Greylag x Canada Goose hybrid, or is it a Canada x Greylag hybrid? An odd bird to find, and one that’s stuck around since October

My window on the world

My ‘window’ list increased by two species, a Black Kite (see below) in May and a flyover/flypast Skylark in October. So it now stands at 103 species and there are still half a dozen or so species I can sort of expect to see yet.

Black Kite with Carrion Crow escort, as they went past my window in May. Original watercolour 406 x 305 mm…and it’s for sale if anyone wants to make an offer…

The ‘Cathode Ray Clinic’

With a nod to Wolfsbane, and yes I do still have an old television none of these fancy plasma screens for me.  My ‘non-natural history tv programme’ list (see Listing, listing, 1,2,3) ended on 62 species slightly down on 2012, but I suspect more down to watching fewer programmes than previously. Highlights, or more unexpected species included: Sanderling, Turnstone, Mediterranean Gull, Blackcap, Bar-tailed Godwit, Pochard and Sandwich Tern.
By far the most frequent ‘background’ species are still Mute Swan, Mallard, Coot, Herring and Black-headed Gull, Canada Goose, Wood Pigeon and assorted Corvids (Rook, Carrion Crow and Jackdaw).  There barely seems to be a programme or news bulletin that doesn’t have one of the above in it somewhere.

The Point

Friday mornings continued to be spent at The Point, during which, I managed to visit in 50 of 52 weeks, snow in January and work commitments in February were the only two weeks when I didn’t manage a full walk around.  I still ended with a weekly average of 66 species and recorded 149 species in all (or 150, Todd’s again…) which is not bad for an average visit being about two and half hours.  One more species than 2012, but a whole range of different species from then.  Highlights were an Osprey and a Little Gull on the same visit and two Great White Egrets which came in off the sea in the autumn, becoming my first of the year.  A Red-breasted Goose made another appearance in December, at which point I had already seen it elsewhere locally when it became my 199th species of the year (it made this years list at number 99, what a contrast).  Always a lovely bird to see regardless of whether it has genuinely linked up with the Brent Geese on migration, or whether it has escaped from a collection.  Made all the more fun by it not being present when my brother came down for the day. Ha.

Red-breasted Goose, an absolute beauty regardless of its origins. In the company of a few Dark-bellied Brent Geese.

2014, new beginnings

And so to this year. An almost total washout on January 1st resulted in a small number of species recorded from the window, but as is customary a few oddities were amongst them. Redwing, of which I’ve only seen a handful anywhere all winter made an appearance, as did a Chaffinch, a species I usually see about a dozen times a year from the window, and haven’t seen in the garden since the 1st.  And a flyover Lesser Black-backed Gull, I see more Chaffinches in a year than I do these, and again, not seen one here since.  Five visits to The Point, so far have returned 55 species three times and 56 twice but still amounting to 82 species in total, so already more than half the number of species I saw in all of 2012.  Two visits also to Blashford Lakes (Hampshire Wildlife Trust reserve, visit their blog here: http://blashfordlakes.wordpress.com/) have already brought me up to 105 species.  I seem to get to 100 quicker each year and as yet there are no real surprises amongst what I’ve seen.

Some fun to close with
I recently spent an enjoyable day at my holiday home helping replace a garden dividing fence that had fallen down. The neighbours are not the most friendly people I’ve ever met so a nice close-board fence between the two properties was the order of the day.  Despite my assertion that it would be a surprising (for the neighbours) and fun thing to do, Martin wouldn’t give in and let me put a gate in middle of the fence.  Oh the fun that could have been had, just going out and opening it now and again just for the hell of it.  We also stopped short at including a ‘No Ball Games’ sign on their side to have a deliberate pop at their kid who kicks his against the fence all the time – annoying little brat – children should be hurt and not seen…  If any of my readers need to replace a fence at any time, think about putting a gate in and all the fun you could have…

Until the next time…

213, 102, 56 and 4 holes

Numbers explained

213 The title of a superb Slayer song, complete with eerie twelve string guitar intro, and, my total bird list for the year.  Including six new species for my ‘life list’ – see Listing, listing, 1,2,3.  It’s interesting  to think that had I made a little bit of effort and gone ‘local’ twitching I could have got up to around 230 species.  There were a number of species that were on the marshes half a mile from the house that I didn’t go to see.  Of the six new species, it makes it more special that I found two of them myself, without the need to go twitching, that’s the beauty of birding, the unexpected can sometimes happen.  Probably the biggest surprise was that it took until mid October before I saw my first and only Grey Wagtail of the year.  A species I usually give no thought to seeing, they are usually fairly easy to find before the end of January.

And so as the new year approaches the slate will be wiped clean and the year list will begin again.

102.  My ‘From the Window list’, only increased by one this year, and that was a Garden Warbler (ironic, as it was around the garden) in August whilst watching the Goldfinches come in to roost one evening.  Not a bad total for fifteen years window-gazing…I can think of about a dozen or so commonish species that I could add with some luck.

56.  My TV list, these were all species seen during the year, usually in the background, of non-natural history tv programmes, just a bit of fun really.  Once again, a number of surprises included Hen Harrier, Tawny Owl and Turnstone.  As previously noted, birds like Mute Swan, Mallard, Herring Gull and, perhaps surprisingly, Coot seem to pop up in the background with remarkable frequency.  The first three species listed rarely even turn up on natural history programmes.  A good fifteen species or so lower than last year, but that’s probably down to me watching less tv.

Other Numbers

For the first time, I think, I managed to visit The Point every Friday this year (with the exception of one going one Thursday due to Bob’s other commitments).  Each visit averages around 3 hours, and ended in me seeing 146 species here in total, with an average of 67.5 species per visit.  Which, I think works out to roughly one species per hour of visit.  Interestingly when I lead groups around the reserve, covering the same route, but taking 6-7 hours, we usually see around 65-70 species.  My highest morning total was 80 species on 31st August right at the height of autumn migration.  My lowest was 49 on 14th December, hampered by the fact that it started raining almost torrentially as soon as I arrived, and made for a miserable morning.  Oddities were a run of visits where I failed to see ‘common and widespread’ species like Wren, Great Tit and even a couple of weeks with no Collared Dove.  Highlights were eleven species of warbler on 31st August which included a Nightingale and my second ever Barred Warbler – all the way from Eastern Europe.  My first ever Red-rumped Swallow headed right over my head and out to sea on 12th October in the company of 70-80 House Martins and made it onto my festive greetings card this year:

I also recorded my earliest ever Sedge Warbler on 30th March (beating last years 1st April) and my latest ever House Martin with two on 2nd November.

Holes 1.

My dictionary describes a hole as the following: hollow place, gap, cavity, burrow, perforation.  I would like to add to this The Railway, Winchester.  Boasting to be Winchesters’ only live music venue I made my first visit there back in late October.  One of my favourite bands; Wolfsbane, were playing there and Panic Room were scheduled to be there in November.  Well what can I say?  it is easily the worst music venue I have ever had the misfortune to visit – even the bar at my old college was a better live venue.  With limited parking nearby (unless you want to pay a fortune in a pay and display) it’s basically a converted pub.  Now don’t get me wrong, some converted pubs are great (The Brook) this one isn’t.  There were two support acts, no idea who they were, but both, I’m assuming, to be local up-and-coming bands.  Neither of whom were anything special, although the vocalist of the second band was pretty good.  The ‘room’ itself, for want of a better term, is tiny, cramped and poorly ventilated – I think I’ve been in bigger and better equipped bird hides.  The ‘stage’ is barely 6 inches high, meaning that I saw none of the band members of the two support acts.  Wolfsbane were as superb as the previous times I’d seen them – the last being 18 years ago.  Playing a mix of songs from their new album and all their classics from their first incarnation (they were first around in the early 1990’s until their singer left to join Iron Maiden, before they reformed part-time a couple of years back and released a new album earlier in the year) it was like they’d never been gone.  My brother and I were joking beforehand which old songs they’d perform, we guessed them all right, for fun I threw in ‘Lifestyles of the Broke and Obscure‘ an obscure and unlikely one, so was surprised when they opened with it.  Their sound was superb and I could even see three of the band during their performance – I never saw the drummer until he stood up at the end of the gig.  When the show was over and people were filtering out, that’s when the venue decided to put on the air conditioning.  I’m guessing that the capacity of the place is about 60 and it was filled to bursting, with no room to move, I think tinned sardines have more room.  I shudder to think of what would have happened had there been an emergency – there only appeared to be one exit – single file down some steps and through a narrow corridor.  I had decided, much to my brothers surprise, before the first support had finished their first song that there was no way I going back for Panic Room.  Absolutely hated the place.  Interestingly, this was the only venue Panic Room made no mention of on their website when they were reviewing their winter tour – maybe they thought it was a hole too.

Holes 2.

At The Point on the last Friday in November I was intrigued to watch a female Blackbird feeding in the strandline of seaweed and other debris.  She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she appeared almost oblivious to my presence.  As a result, I was able to approach her to within a yard or two and watch as she slowly dug herself a hole deeper in the seaweed.  I’m guessing that she was feeding on the sandhoppers and other invertebrates that were hiding in there awaiting the next tide.  Judging by the vigour with which she was feeding she was finding a huge amount of food.  Deep within the seaweed it would stay moist until the next high tide, thus preventing the invertebrates within from drying out.  As she dug deeper she was almost so deep that she was in as deep as herself.  The depth with which she was feeding would surely have left her prone to attack from either an aerial source or a land based carnivore like a Stoat?  Presumably the speed with which she could source a high energy food outweighed the danger?  After a few minutes I left her to it and noticed a number of other Blackbirds of both sexes doing similar things all along the strandline that stretched out ahead of me.

Female Blackbird, so engrossed in feeding she paid my approach little attention

Dug in so deep, she’s almost hidden herself…

…leaving herself vulnerable to attacks by various predators, like this Stoat

Holes 3.

Here’s what ten winters of birding with gloves on has done:

Who would have thought binoculars could be so destructive?  The middle finger on both hands went through on the same morning as a result of regular use of the focus wheel of my binoculars.

(Holes 4.)

One thing to bear in mind when buying gloves is that your glove size is pretty much the same as your shoe size.  It’s also worth bearing in mind, if you’re pulled to one side when coming through Customs…have a look at the shoe size of the person who’s about to make that unpleasant hole inspection – it’ll give you an idea of just how painful it’s going to be…

On that cheery note, it’s time to say thanks to all my followers who’ve joined me during the year, and I’ll wish you and all my other readers a happy new year,

Until the next time…