Garden / Yard List 2021 (1 Viewer)

[KenM]

Excellent shots BM!
Treecreepers are found in the wood opposite my back yard, however I rarely see them from the house and so far this year it’s proving to be no exception.😩

 

[KenM]

Following on from Birdmeister’s Brown Creeper I decided to give the woods outback a once over when just before leaving, a Diver sp. appeared high above the canopy heading West (viewing time seconds before disappearing behind my Cypress 😩) essentially Cormorant size with fast wing beats.
Upon reaching the stream outback and watching a Song Thrush and Redwing bathing, before flying up to be replaced by a small brown thingy!
With closer inspection all was to be revealed….a first for me! and I’ve got BM to thank for that…then following on another “stream occasional” which I can’t tick! 😩

 

[KenM]

After suspecting one of these earlier in the year but just too distant, it was with great joy that whilst tracking it out of a wall to wall blue high and West disappearing behind my lofty Sallow, it altered course and headed North just allowing the low sun to spotlight it’s white and scarlet pink unders. Bullfinch no.94!
Add to that my 3 sps. held in abeyance…
Blythi LW, putative P.neglectus and Diver sp ., it’s looking unlikely but possible, we will see…now where are those Brambling,
Greenfinch and Teal! 😮😮😮

 

[Richard Prior]

Just one month to go then Garden/Yard listers, I suspect this is when most of us look back and wonder « how did I manage to miss species x or y this year? » rather than looking ahead to a December which often adds nothing new! There’s plenty of action around the property to keep us entertained though, the Middle Spotted Woodpecker is a daily visitor to the feeders now and Willow Tit have finally ventured out of the forest to stock up on sunflower seeds. The heavy snow over the weekend brought a couple of Alpine Accentors down from the mountains but both were flight views unfortunately ( glad they called otherwise I’d have had them as passerine sp ). Unless a stray Meadow Pipit or Skylark gets lost up here I don’t expect to advance beyond the 90 I reached with the Citrol Finch, but as the pigeon said to Fievel the mouse in An American Tail « never say never » !!
44 garden species in November according to my eBird lists.

 

[KenM]

Throwing up my hands in despair this am, when standing at the window and out of the corner of my eye.
I noticed “3 Jackdaws” tumbling in the sky and about to disappear over the roof (something not quite right with one of the birds), being somewhat smaller!!!!!

It’s a BOP I exclaimed, quickly rushing down the stairs to rush out the front door, then run up my 45 degree incline to the road.
Only to see a smaller, rapidly diminishing BOP disappear to the East over neighbour’s roof!
Male Sprawk or a hoped for Merlin, brought in on a North Westerly?

That certainly miffed me somewhat, before taking my 10k step circuit walk to Connaught Waters and beyond.

On the return leg perhaps 400m from home walking between an Oak copse surrounded by a Blackthorn thicket adjoining a grassy plain, a long-winged “cantering” owl crossed into view….oh so briefly!

Between the copse and the
island bushes either LEO or SEO not enough time to ID it. A subsequent search in bad light revealed nowt!
Being awashed with Corvids and Parakeets where are the “bloody buggers” when you need them…A-a-a-a-g-h!

 

[Richard Prior]

It's not good for your heart, all that stressing and running up the slope like that you know!
A bit of a blizzard here yesterday followed by a very cold night (it's still minus 6°C now at 09h35!), so not surprisingly this rotund ball of feathers has come to see what it can find around the house, playing hide and seek at first. if only it had brought a Siberian cousin with it.................

 

[KenM]

It's not good for your heart, all that stressing and running up the slope like that you know!
A bit of a blizzard here yesterday followed by a very cold night (it's still minus 6°C now at 09h35!), so not surprisingly this rotund ball of feathers has come to see what it can find around the house, playing hide and seek at first. if only it had brought a Siberian cousin with it.................

Very nice Richard!….I’ve got Dunnocks too.😩😩😩👍

 

[Farnboro John]

Very nice Richard!….I’ve got Dunnocks too.😩😩😩👍

Dunnocks?????

John

 

[KenM]

Dunnocks?????

John

It’s an Alpine Accentor John….a relative of Dunnock….hence the crying “emos”

 

[Farnboro John]

It’s an Alpine Accentor John….a relative of Dunnock….hence the crying “emos”

Thank heavens... thought you'd gone nuts!

John

 

[KenM]

Thank heavens... thought you'd gone nuts!

John

Well there’s always time for that….albeit have had that levelled at me in the past, sometimes accompanied with the odd expletive!😂

 

[KenM]

Out of a watery, Winter grey sky, another one bites the dust (well it would have done had it not pulled out of that sharp angled dive outback).
Always reminds me of a Douglas Dauntless without it’s tail, the tragedy of no.95 is that it’s taken this long to see one.
Sixty years ago, they rose from the Forest floor like green tracer bullets….Greenfinch alas no more.

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

I think this is 47 as I have two 28’s

47. Jay

Have seen them throughout the year but assumed I’d already counted it.

 

[Richard Prior]

I think this is 47 as I have two 28’s

47. Jay

Have seen them throughout the year but assumed I’d already counted it.

I was ‘average’ at Maths Rich but I can assure you that two 28’s is 56, not 47

 

[halftwo]

First for two months, and what a cracker!

80: MERLIN

Hunting Redwings right over the house!!!

 

[KenM]

First for two months, and what a cracker!

80: MERLIN

Hunting Redwings right over the house!!!

Send it “Souf H!” I’ve had it possibly twice this year, only too brief and too far!👍

 

[KenM]

With just a few days left of the old year am thinking that the “ton” will elude me again
However with 95 on the clock and 3 in abeyance I’m not grumbling.
As garden year listing for me was always a means to an end, in which it was going to be biased towards migrating passerines particularly on return passage.

With this year markedly different from last, with no Reed Warblers being recorded,(9) last year, also no Pied Flycatchers with (3) last year.
However to counter those omissions - this year produced 5 Spot Flys (to include a first ever Spring record) and an almost unbelievable 5 Common Redstart sightings to include 1 male.

To put the latter into some sort of context…the previous 35 years only produced three Redstarts!
The difference being COVID and with that, the almost tripling of hours spent in the crows nest particularly during mid April-mid June and mid July-mid October…”no gain we’ out pain”.

I’m sure everyone participating this year has added “lustre to their cluster” and no doubt will continue doing so, good luck to all and a better New Year in ‘22. 👍

 

[Richard Prior]

A short review from me (phew I hear you say!), 2021 saw me set a new record of 90 species in the year (with the current torrential rain and low cloud I'm pretty sure nothing will be added before midnight on 31st!). There were four additions to the Garden Life List, overdue local breeders Pygmy Owl (heard) and Whinchat, a Collared Dove that wandered no doubt up from Thônes 7kms away and a female Red-footed Falcon hunting one evening on the other side of the valley in May.
Like many around the world, Covid restrictions (both governmental and personally applied) meant a higher than average percentage of birding time was home based, eBird tells me I've submitted 308 daily checklists for the Garden/Yard . Despite all the hours put in I think I could have got up to 95 with a bit more luck, four species that I've seen twice or more since our 2016 arrival were this year missing in action (or inaction in my case), Cirl Bunting, Garden Warbler, Wryneck and Lesser Redpoll.
We have a Middle Spotted Woodpecker wintering (which is a first for here), I've finally got to recognise the call which helps on the very rare days when it doesn't come to feed, taking it in turns with its larger cousin (see photos from the past couple of days).
There, that was definitely not as long-winded as I usually am, no doubt because sprouts weren't on the Christmas meal menu over here

 

[Richard Prior]

Hi Laoya,
My lilacs are still too small to require pruning but I find that it’s important to snip off the flower heads straight after flowering, it’s worked each year for us so far and the bush is just coming into flower at the moment. I often look at the RHS website for good advice on all sorts of gardening issues, be it flowers, shrubs, fruit or vegetables!

 

[SueO]

Hi Laoya,
My lilacs are still too small to require pruning but I find that it’s important to snip off the flower heads straight after flowering, it’s worked each year for us so far and the bush is just coming into flower at the moment. I often look at the RHS website for good advice on all sorts of gardening issues, be it flowers, shrubs, fruit or vegetables!

When I was a kid, we lived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and our back yard was ringed with lilacs and little cherry things. The lilacs were so beautiful and smelled wonderful. I missed them when we transferred to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Talk about environmental shock!