KB57's 2017 UK list (1 Viewer)

[kb57]

Having only got back into listing last year, my modest aim is to beat my total of 160 set last year. I failed miserably in last year's aim of beating my last UK list from 1972 of 182 - I obviously managed to get out more then...
I'm hoping to target regularly occurring UK species which I missed last year (a two-year 2016-17 list in a way), and (just like back in '72) 'heard-onlys' don't count. I've got lots to target, at risk of eliciting disdain from the more committed members of this forum I'll give a few examples of the more obvious...garden warbler, reed warbler (both 'heard-only' last year), red grouse, ring ouzel (grouse moors aren't my favourite habitat), purple sandpiper, green sandpiper, cuckoo (another heard-only), lesser whitethroat, whimbrel and short-eared owl. My top target is probably wood warbler, a bird familiar in my youth but sadly much rarer now.
January 1st started in Northumberland (Wooler / Holy Island / Bamburgh)
1. robin
2. chaffinch
3. coal tit
4. dunnock
5. blue tit
6. great tit
7. greenfinch
8. goldfinch
9. blackbird
10. woodpigeon
11. house sparrow
12. rook
13. jackdaw
14. pheasant
15. carrion crow
16. starling
17. mute swan
18. pink-footed goose
19. kestrel
20. curlew
21. oystercatcher
22. black-headed gull
23. herring gull
24. feral pigeon
25. lapwing
26. black-tailed godwit
27. knot
28. redshank
29. brent goose (ssp. hrota)
30. cormorant
31. linnet
32. sanderling
33. dunlin
34. GBB gull
35. common gull
36. grey heron
37. cormorant
38. sanderling
39. teal
40. merlin * (not seen 2016)
41. eider
42. turnstone
43. grey plover
44. mallard
45. rock pipit
46. golden plover
47. common buzzard
Main dips: purple sandpiper (rocks at Bamburgh crawling with tourists / dogs / children, despite severe weather and incoming tide) and bar-tailed godwit (usually a certainty, but not enough time spent around Holy Island due to incoming tide)

 

[kb57]

January 2nd: River Coquet, Northumberland
48. sparrowhawk
49. little grebe
50. wren
51. nuthatch
(great spotted woodpecker - heard-only)
52. dipper
53. marsh tit

 

[kb57]

Jan 3rd: back at work, Durham
54. moorhen
55. bullfinch

Jan 4th: out and about with work, Durham / Northumberland
56. mistle thrush
57. wigeon
58. shelduck
59. meadow pipit
60. goldcrest
61. pied wagtail
62. coot

Jan 5th: travel to work again
63. jay
64. collared dove (a 'heard only' from Jan 1st)

 

[kb57]

Jan 6th: first 'blank' day, at work...

Jan 7th: Northumberland
65. long-tailed tit
66. gadwall
67. treecreeper

Jan 8th: Low Newton, Northumberland
68. red-throated diver
69. goldeneye
70. long-tailed duck
71. purple sandpiper * (not seen in 2016)
72. greylag goose
73. shoveler
74. whooper swan
75. yellowhammer
76. tree sparrow

 

[kb57]

My definition of 'regularly occurring UK species' and consequent avoidance of twitching rarities was stretched to the limit yesterday...well, I was working in the area, and it is just a sub-species...
Jan 10th: Skinningrove, Cleveland
77. stonechat
78. fulmar
79. (Eastern) black redstart *

 

[kb57]

Jan 12th: Co. Durham, near my office
80. goosander / common merganser

 

[kb57]

Been on a (non-birding) holiday so catching up with a few additions before I left...
Jan 14th: Lindisfarne - mainland end of causeway area
81. twite (flock of 80 near the car park)
82. little egret
83. bar-tailed godwit
84. skylark

Jan 15th: Rothbury area
85. fieldfare
86. red-legged partridge
87. siskin

Although this is a deliberately parochial UK list, I did manage to add 2 (or maybe 3) species to my 'world' year list in the French Alps: Alpine chough, raven, and the presumably still untwitchable Lammergeier - which would've been a WP tick for me (if I kept a WP list...).

 

[kb57]

Jan 27th: lunchtime walk in freezing fog near my office
88. brambling

 

[kb57]

Out of UK and back in France for a week with no birding, but managed to add nutcracker (first I've seen anywhere for about 15 years), crested tit and Alpine accentor to my 'world' 2017 list.

Feb 5th: 89. red kite - 2 seen (Rowland's Gill, Gateshead & Burnopfield, Co. Durham) while driving this morning

 

[kb57]

9th Feb: Durham City
90. song thrush

Co. Durham (feeding on alder cones near office)
91. (lesser) redpoll

 

[kb57]

11th Feb: Northumberland
92. tufted duck
93. red-breasted merganser
94. pochard

 

[kb57]

13th Feb (I think, forgot to make a note...) Co. Durham
95. great spotted woodpecker

19th Feb: Abandoned any pretence of avoiding rarities, even if they do have to stay around a while in order to eat away at my resolve...
East Chevington, Northumberland
96. scaup
97. shore lark *
98. ringed plover
99. Pacific diver * (1st UK and WP)
100. Slavonian grebe
Probable late afternoon flyover peregrine too, but by the time I got onto it was disappearing behind the dunes. Yet more twite with the shore larks, but still haven't seen a reed bunting this year! Ringed plover were also somewhat overdue.

 

[kb57]

27th Feb, driving across Simonside, Northumberland
101. red grouse *

 

[kb57]

5th March: Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB
102. avocet
103. ruff
104. stock dove
105. lesser black-backed gull
106. marsh harrier
107. reed bunting
108. chiffchaff
(Cetti's warbler - heard)

Parkgate
109. great white egret * (not seen in UK 2016)

6th March: Burton Mere
(water rail - heard)

For some reason my Scythebill list is showing 110 (even with 'heard onlys' not counting) so I may have missed something somewhere...

 

[kb57]

Mystery of missing #110 solved...
6th March, West Kirby, Wirral
110: great crested grebe

(could've sworn it was already on my list, but Scythebill tells me its the first I've seen since December!)

 

[kb57]

St. Patrick's Day - morning visit to the gym in Durham city, rewarded by:
111. grey wagtail
...dipper, grey heron and cormorant also on the river, optimistically checked the black-headed gulls for something more interesting.

 

[kb57]

Added a few more 'world' list species in Switzerland March 19th on a train journey from Geneva to Wengen..good numbers of black kites in the first part of the journey (replaced by red further east), and red-crested pochard on Thunersee. No snowfinches at Mannlichen though...
Only one addition to my UK list on March 31st, Newcastle Quayside:

112. kittiwake

Still puts me ahead of both 1972 and 2016. End of winter comparison with last year shows long-billed dowitcher, smew, and possibly willow tit and velvet scoter as the least likely to feature in 2017 - the last two will require a bit of effort on my part, recorded from Fairburn Ings and Gullane Bay respecively last year.

 

[kb57]

Been a bit under the weather lately, concentrating on bird photography as my better half gets used to her new camera, and not been anywhere likely to add new species, not even common migrants...however, enjoying the sunshine in a Rothbury garden at the weekend, she spotted two soaring birds high above....a sparrowhawk, providing useful scale to:

113: Northern raven (8th Apr)

...which was only added to her 'seen-from' garden list last year, despite occurring not so far away on the Simonside Hills.

 

[kb57]

Summer migrants arriving...
13th April, Durham city
114. sand martin
15th April, Druridge
115. willow warbler
116. swallow

 

[kb57]

20th April: Co. Durham, leaving before dawn to go to the airport
117. barn owl

...then while working in conifer woodland near Craigellachie, Moray
118. crossbill sp. * (in an area with Scottish crossbill records, but managed to inadvertently delete the recording I made on my iPhone, so I'll never know...FWIW bill looked just like a common crossbill to me, not that I have any experience of the other taxa). Note to self - learn how to use recording apps first before going out in field...

21st April: Portsoy, Aberdeenshire - attempted twitch of a white-billed diver on my way back to the airport. Dipped on the diver, but 40-50 summer-plumage long-tailed ducks riding the swell were some compensation - not a year tick, but good to see in very different plumage. I did manage two less impressive additions:
119. gannet
120. shag