Garden / Yard List 2015 (1 Viewer)

[KenM]

Only one short of equalling your best-ever year then Ken?

All quiet here, though I was away for a week, I'm at 94, so looking at possibles to make that elusive ton I'm hoping for(in order of likelihood):

Goldcrest - seen every year so very odd that it's missing still
Redwing - nearly annual, and approaching the key weeks now
Cormorant- 4 records in our 9 years here, all autumn
YL Gull - ditto, but usually earlier in the autumn
Tree Sparrow - ditto, has turned up in snowstorms in past winters
Citril Finch- 3 records, all autumn
Hen Harrier - ditto, all autumn
Merlin - 2 autumn records, passage beginning now
Woodlark - 3 records but only once in autumn, a lot moving at the moment down the Rhône.
So, I could be in the 'nervous nineties' for quite a while!

I have no problem with the first 3 Richard, however regarding the remainder only Merlin once, and Woodlark twice....if I was exceedingly lucky.
Trouble is, with "Eighty" being a possibility?, it's going to tie me to the windowsill for longer than I would wish. Just think of all those extra cups of tea I'd have to drink....doesn't bear thinking about.

 

[Richard Prior]

I have no problem with the first 3 Richard, however regarding the remainder only Merlin once, and Woodlark twice....if I was exceedingly lucky.
Trouble is, with "Eighty" being a possibility?, it's going to tie me to the windowsill for longer than I would wish. Just think of all those extra cups of tea I'd have to drink....doesn't bear thinking about.

I could always send you a 'food parcel' of croissants from hereabouts to make your vigil more bearable

 

[Jos Stratford]

A rather good one today - by coincidence as I was completing a platform to observe raptors, so a raptor drifted over the adjacent meadow ...second record for my land, male Pallid Harrier, neat.

127. Pallid Harrier

.

 

[Richard Prior]

A rather good one today - by coincidence as I was completing a platform to observe raptors, so a raptor drifted over the adjacent meadow ...second record for my land, male Pallid Harrier, neat.

127. Pallid Harrier

.

Neat? Neat? For the rest of us "neat" for such a beauty is a gross understatement Jos!

 

[Warixenjalka]

Any Harrier would be a rarity on my garden...

 

[joannec]

Neat? Neat? For the rest of us "neat" for such a beauty is a gross understatement Jos!

Agreed!

Things are winding down in my garden, though still possible to get a few more. Looking back the highlight of my garden birding year is Whinchat, the best ever year on the home patch. They were seen on 13 dates altogether in the autumn with a maximum of five at once. Another highlight was the 4000+ Swallows moving south in one day last month. So if there are one or two highlights for you guys what are they....doesn't have to be the most rare?

 

[halftwo]

Obviously my BOPs - Hobby, Red Kite & especially the Osprey that passed twice (thrice?).

But, with only two & a half months to go there are only a very few possibles left. So a bit of a poor year for me.

 

[Jos Stratford]

Neat? Neat? For the rest of us "neat" for such a beauty is a gross understatement Jos!

Very neat

All four harriers this year, that is neat too

 

[KenM]

Agreed!

Things are winding down in my garden, though still possible to get a few more. Looking back the highlight of my garden birding year is Whinchat, the best ever year on the home patch. They were seen on 13 dates altogether in the autumn with a maximum of five at once. Another highlight was the 4000+ Swallows moving south in one day last month. So if there are one or two highlights for you guys what are they....doesn't have to be the most rare?

An exceptional October for me ( so far ) I'd be dishonest If I didn't mention YBW as being singularly electrifying!...and equally so...If I didn't mention the "cheeping" of House Sparrows beneath my open window (probably the 1st occurence for two years and very much "nostalgic" music to my ears). However the Hawfinch for me is very much No.1.

 

[RyanI]

Agreed!

Things are winding down in my garden, though still possible to get a few more. Looking back the highlight of my garden birding year is Whinchat, the best ever year on the home patch. They were seen on 13 dates altogether in the autumn with a maximum of five at once. Another highlight was the 4000+ Swallows moving south in one day last month. So if there are one or two highlights for you guys what are they....doesn't have to be the most rare?

Highlights for me have been this week with a great autumn fall, hundreds of goldcrests passing through, thrushes everywhere, some landing on my drive exhausted along with bramblings, at least 8 SEOs in off the sea over the house. sooties, balearics and poms out at sea. The amount of birds has been incredible, a shame the GG Shrike wasn't viewable from the garden though......

 

[RyanI]

And on that note, here are the latest additions

130 Snow Bunting
131 Golden Plover
132 Short-eared Owl
133 Coal Tit
134 Ring Ouzel
135 Great Spotted Woodpecker
136 Pomarine Skua
137 Balearic Shearwater

 

[lazza]

Keep your eyes to the skies lazza!....that's where (most) of my garden ticks come from, Pink-footed Goose unfortunately, would not be found (over) my neck of the woods.

Haha! Absolutely. My garden year list would be pretty feeble without the flyovers and "seen-froms". And the garden life list would be missing such wonders as little egret, grey wagtail, ring-necked parakeet and red kite (although I had to run after the red kite to make it a seen from the garden, as it soared over me as I walked back from the park with my kids, and although it flew straight over my house, I ran down the road to make sure it was seen while I was in the garden....!!)

:-O

Anyway, amazingly, the garden year list advanced by two today, one of which was a garden lifer, taking the year's total to 47. As it's been a warm day, my office window was and I was alerted to a nuthatch calling from trees close by, which is a completely new species for this garden, and then an hour later, half a dozen Canada geese flew low over the house.

 

[joannec]

Highlights for me have been this week with a great autumn fall, hundreds of goldcrests passing through, thrushes everywhere, some landing on my drive exhausted along with bramblings, at least 8 SEOs in off the sea over the house. sooties, balearics and poms out at sea. The amount of birds has been incredible, a shame the GG Shrike wasn't viewable from the garden though......

Fantastic Ryan. I've forgotten where you live, coastal obviously but where? Brambling is a one off in my garden, but when it did appear, clearly exhausted, it stayed all day feeding on fat hen seeds.

 

[joannec]

73) Grey Wagtail, another one that was slow in coming.

 

[halftwo]

Another Grey Wagtail today, Joanne, but more importantly a

71: Treecreeper

was calling nearby.

 

[RyanI]

Fantastic Ryan. I've forgotten where you live, coastal obviously but where? Brambling is a one off in my garden, but when it did appear, clearly exhausted, it stayed all day feeding on fat hen seeds.

Hi Joanne, I'm on the East coast of Norfolk. Its been an amazing last 10/11 days here, birds everywhere!

 

[Peter C.]

Saturday, October 17

29) Cooper's Hawk

 

[joannec]

Another Grey Wagtail today, Joanne, but more importantly a

71: Treecreeper

was calling nearby.

Treecreeper.....aahh.....for me I will only get that if I can pick it up in the scope once the leaves fall off the trees in the woods......if only they called louder, I would add it no problem! It remains a one off.:stuck:

 

[Richard Prior]

That wintry feeling is creeping into the area, Bramblings in the garden every day now, and the local pair of Fieldfare have been joined by 20-odd more from further away no doubt.
Number 2 on my list of 9 likely/possible species just appeared on tree across the road:

95 Redwing

Not at all common hereabouts, our seventh autumn record in nine years, five of which have fallen between 22 and 31 October, so relieved to have this one 'in the bag'.

 

[Richard Prior]

Feeling a little fragile this morning, as I watched the rugby in a Geneva pub last night with some emotional Argentines. I drew back the curtains and immediately saw three tiny balls of feathers flitting around on one of our shrubs, the most probable in my list of possibles for the rest of the year, and about time too for what is annual garden bird here:


96 Goldcrest

Maybe I should drink Guinness more often, it brought me 'the luck of the Irish' (or Australians, if we're talking in rugby terms )