What would happen if you didn't have your local patch?

[RockyRacoon]

I have some birds on my list I have only ever seen on my local patch, for example, Garden Warbler (a new one I got yesterday). Which birds have you only seen on our local patch? If you spend more time birding their than others it is likely you are going to see a rare bird that is unusual there. Apparently the summer I moved close to my local patch there was a Grasshopper Warbler breeding! I missed it by about 10 days!!!!! Now I have lived in my area for a few months hopefully rarer birds will pop out of no where! I'm wildlife watching tonight, I'll post here to let you know what I see!

[osborne]

The following are species which I have only seen on my local patch :

- Lesser Whitethroat
- Little Ringed Plover
- Cuckoo

[Nina P]

Well Jake,
Grasshopper warblers do tend to return to previous successful nest sites so I really do hope you get to see it there! I have a similar problem, I live in a Dartford warbler zone, and have done all my life but have never seen one, but I did discover at the end of last year, I had actually heard one whilst sat in the car, but never even knew it!! How's that for bad luck! I wish you great success!

[birdman]

Just two weeks ago, I saw my first ever Crossbill on my local patch, my first lifer on my patch.

You're right Jake, with the time put in you are almost bound to pick up something eventually... but more than that, IMO, you will become familiar with birds you might otherwise see only rarely. For me, it will soon be Whitethroats and Owls, while I get the two big woodpeckers regularly.

Looking forward to your wildlife report!

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Jake,

For a long time my only Wryneck was on my local patch. Then I saw another - in Turkey! But I've seen some more in other places in Northumberland since.

Quite a few good birds I've only seen in Northumberland and nowhere else, though.

Michael

[Adey Baker]

I'm sure I must have seen Little Owl somewhere else on my travels but without actually looking it up in my records I can't pinpoint anywhere specific.

[Jane Turner]

Oh dear... I'd lose for example 50% of my Great-spotted Cuckoos, 75% of my Red Rumped Swallows 80% of my Red-throated Pipits, 50% of Great Reed Warblers & Greenish Warblers.... my only UK Bee-eater all 6 of my UK Melodious Warblers!

Please don't take it away from me...

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I can't think of anything I've seen on my patch but nowhere else, although I've only seen one other American Golden Plover. I remember that I was birding for several years before I saw a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker further than a mile from where I grew up.

[Geraldine]

I'd go mad, (some say I have already!) without my local patch. I know what birds I am going to meet, or stand a good chance of meeting, and where. There's a greater spotted woodpecker nesting in a tree which I'm keeping a furtive eye on, a jay who comes down to the ground at my feet to eat the peanuts I throw, as well as many other birds who meet me at various pre-arranged rendezvous for a handful of birdseed, the jackdaws who wait for me at Dover castle, and fly across to wait on a wall for me, 14 pairs of black redstarts which have so far eluded me, but I know they are there, from other birders, a bat that flies in bright sunshine which I now look for every day. Whenever I'm not working, I go out with a bag of birdseed and peanuts, and a flask of coffee, and come back with happy memories and a peaceful mind!

[tom mckinney]

I used to have great local patch. As a kid I saw my first Brambling and Pied Flycatcher there.

I now don't have a local patch. I twitch too much, and I'm now getting a bored of it not to mention getting stressed out (so sad). I need a new local patch.

[Jane Turner]

I used to have great local patch. As a kid I saw my first Brambling and Pied Flycatcher there.

I now don't have a local patch. I twitch too much, and I'm now getting a bored of it not to mention getting stressed out (so sad). I need a new local patch.

I'm the other way round... I get vertigo if I wander away from patch....and worry about what I'm missing! The furthest I've been so far this year is Dibbinsdale.. no I tell a lie - Frodsham

[CJW]

Southern Grey Shrike, Orca and Minke Whale are the only things I've seen on my patch that I haven't seen elsewhere.
Wouldn't swap it for the world, though.

[Steve Lister]

Without birding my local patch I would not have Crag Martin on my British list, and neither would many other people either, as I found it and put the news out straightaway, allowing about 1500 people the chance to get there. Of course everyone everywhere then started checking hirundine flocks a bit more thoroughly and what was assumed to be the same bird was found in Yorkshire next day. If I had not seen it on my patch the previous day I wonder if anyone would have been on the look-out???

Steve

[Adey Baker]

I'm the other way round... I get vertigo if I wander away from patch....and worry about what I'm missing! The furthest I've been so far this year is Dibbinsdale.. no I tell a lie - Frodsham

I didn't realise that China was nearer to you than Frodsham, Jane!

[Dave B Smith]

I wouldn't have my Pygmy Kingfisher and that would be a shame!

[SimonC]

I've just recently (in the last fortnight!) started watching an area near me that is proving to be a bit of migrant hot-spot - surprising really considering the location!
Without it, I wouldn't have Whinchat.........I saw my first there last week ;)
On the downside though, I've just read a report that a Black Redstart (another potential lifer for me) was found there this morning. I didn't know about it when I went at lunchtime though I doubt it would've made any difference as the site was quite dead at that time!
Oh well, at least it proves that my hunch was right! (I've been hoping for a BR there since my first visit - & it might yet show up if I sneak out there this evening ;) )

[Andrew]

If I didn't have it I'd not have a place where I feel like Lord of the Manor and know every nook and cranny to eke out those important birds for the day list. Most of all I would lose the one place I REALLY love even though most times I do it just once a month.

FYI My local patch is my WeBS beat on the Grand Western Canal.

[Michael Frankis]

Without birding my local patch I would not have Crag Martin on my British list, and neither would many other people either, as I found it and put the news out straightaway, allowing about 1500 people the chance to get there. Of course everyone everywhere then started checking hirundine flocks a bit more thoroughly and what was assumed to be the same bird was found in Yorkshire next day. If I had not seen it on my patch the previous day I wonder if anyone would have been on the look-out???

Steve
Hi Steve,

I was in the crowd that 'dipped' it the next morning - but on the way home was only 5 miles from Pugneys when it was relocated, so got it after all :D

Good one on the finding!

Michael

[SimonC]

I've just recently (in the last fortnight!) started watching an area near me that is proving to be a bit of migrant hot-spot - surprising really considering the location!
Without it, I wouldn't have Whinchat.........I saw my first there last week ;)
On the downside though, I've just read a report that a Black Redstart (another potential lifer for me) was found there this morning. I didn't know about it when I went at lunchtime though I doubt it would've made any difference as the site was quite dead at that time!
Oh well, at least it proves that my hunch was right! (I've been hoping for a BR there since my first visit - & it might yet show up if I sneak out there this evening ;) )I sneaked.........I saw..........I left with a big stupid grin on my face :D

[RockyRacoon]

I used to have great local patch. As a kid I saw my first Brambling and Pied Flycatcher there.

I now don't have a local patch. I twitch too much, and I'm now getting a bored of it not to mention getting stressed out (so sad). I need a new local patch.

Isn't it seeing birds that counts, even if there is no ticks or rarities to be seen? I have seen most of the birds that commonly visit my local patch. But I'm still looking for that last Goldcrest that spends the summer on my local patch and waiting for the Garden Warbler to pop up again. And I watch the whitethroats every night! Even if it is just finding out how the pair of Blackbirds are doing, or if the Chiffchaffs have paired yet, I always love seeing what is going on in my local patch! So can it get boring?

[RockyRacoon]

I'll post what I saw for the last two days!

11/05/04
Whitethroat, singing
Nice views of a singing Wren
Two Chiffchaffs singing to each other, they were about 20 metres away from each other!
Kestrel, attacked by a Crow

12/05/04
Whitethroat, singing
Linnet performed a song flight

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I very much agree with you Jake. The great thing about watching a patch is that just being out birding is an end in itself. You're not birding to try and see particular species or to get ticks, you're just birding because being out birding is a great thing to do whatever you end up seeing.

[Karl J]

Off the top of my head, these are the ones i've only seen on my local patch : grey-male Hen Harrier, Ring Ouzel, Whimbrel, American Golden Plover, Snow Bunting, Wood Sandpiper, Water Rail.

Think I'd be a bit lost without it.

[Karl J]

Hmmm .. unfortunately i seem to have put my books / lists somewhere so very safe i can't find them now, so can't look this up. But after doing a bit of thinking today i've come up with several more i've never seen anywhere else ...

Little Stint
Barnacle Geese
Red-necked Grebe
Med. Gull
Little Tern
Black Tern
Sandwich Tern
Arctic Skua
Rock Pipit
Wheatear
Olive-backed Pipit
Pallas Warbler
..... the last 2 courtesy of a twitch which i believe is a bit of an annual event at Yarmouth cemetary

Guess my lists would be considerably smaller if i didn't have a local patch !

[tom mckinney]

So can it get boring?


Hi Jake,

I think you've misunderstood me. Watching birds is never boring, but what I find boring is spending most of my time sat in a car with people I don't always get on with (girlfriend excluded) or being sat at motorway service stations.

However, finally seeing that Harlequin Duck or Penduline Tit tends to make up for it all.

I'd still love a really good patch though.

[RockyRacoon]

Oh, I'm very sorry! Sorry!

[Jane Turner]

I didn't realise that China was nearer to you than Frodsham, Jane!

That was work induced travel... not birding!

[John o'Sullivan]

i've been watching my local patch for 13 years and i've found and seen a number of birds there that no other birders have managed to get onto e.g. ring billed, iceland gull, smew, snow bunting, none of them have been brit ticks however. The two that got away, that would have been, were a black kite that I saw a mile away heading towards my patch (where I obviously drove to straight away) no luck however- the M4 proved more attractive I think. The second a black throated thrush that I saw for about 20 seconds not long enough to clinch I.D.

[Neil]

I also resent the time spent travelling to another good patch. In my case it's about a 4 hour round trip to get far enough away from Sydney for something new. The special birds seen only in my Patch are -
little bittern
baillon's crake
latham's snipe
double-banded plover
grey goshawk
shining bronze cuckoo
but , perhaps even more importantly, I wouldn't see all the behaviours and nesting successes year on year which enable me to get more intimate photographs. I love my patch and I'm going to spend the next 5 days there to make up for my neglect over the last 2 weeks. Neil

[christineredgate]

I very much agree with you Jake. The great thing about watching a patch is that just being out birding is an end in itself. You're not birding to try and see particular species or to get ticks, you're just birding because being out birding is a great thing to do whatever you end up seeing.
Andrew,you have it in a nutshell .When there have been the threads with the discussions,twitching re Birdwatching,I have always tried to say that the joys of Birdwatching is simply doing just that,watching the birds,following their little habits and routines.People will come into the Hide,or I will meet them on the sea defences,and they invariably will say,"Have you see anything interesting",whereupon I reply,"well they are all interesting.".It gets me a funny look,obviously if there is a bird which is unusual or does not often visit,I will mention it,and it is good to see birds which one does not often come across,all birds fascinate me.