Targets for 2018 (4 Viewers)

[JWN Andrewes]

November 2nd

Another morning out, this time over to Llandudno, where we parked up on The Parade by the turning down Carmen Sylva Road, which we headed up, scanning roofs and aerials before being beckoned by a couple of birders (birding couple even, it looked like) who had located the Rose-coloured Starling in some ivy, although it had recently done a bunk. Wasn't long before we relocated it, up in the guesthouse gutters, where it showed beautifully in the gorgeous mid morning sunshine, returning fairly quickly even after being chased several houses along Victoria Street by a Jackdaw. The rest of the morning sort of petered out, my enthusiasm wasn't matched by the boys', they played along the rocky breakwater while I scanned the Llanddulas shore for Glaucous Gull to no avail, all the Scoters were way to far out to do anything useful with, and to be honest by now I was about done, and with tasks back at home nagging at me we called time on the day out. Back in work tomorrow, so that's half term done for me, with only four more weekends off before the turn of the year. My word how it does fly!

 

[edenwatcher]

Last Saturday Daniel and I went down to Fife Ness hoping to make the most of the excellent seawatching conditions. It didn't really work out, with all skuas too far out to identify, a single shearwater likewise (probably sooty) and only I got on to any little auks. Highlights seen by both of us included a near summer plumage grat northern diver and plenty of long-tailed ducks. Such is birding.
Yesterday he accompanied me on my WeBS count where a jack snipe was a year tick and there were lots of common scoters plus a bottle-nosed dolphin.

Rob

 

[MKinHK]

A very nice run of successful twitches - nice pic of the Catbird, a nicely weetabixy Baird’s Sand and a surrprisingly attractive juvenile Rosy Starling.

Cheers
Mike

 

[JWN Andrewes]

A very nice run of successful twitches - nice pic of the Catbird, a nicely weetabixy Baird’s Sand and a surrprisingly attractive juvenile Rosy Starling.

Cheers
Mike

Run came to and end with the departure (demise) of the Meols Pied Wheatear just shy of the weekend a couple of weeks ago. I was so bummed out by it that I didn't bother reporting it on here (not that there was much to report save for a year tick Merlin over), and sacked off birding for the Sunday too.

But you're right, it was an uncharacteristically pretty Pink Stink!

 

[JWN Andrewes]

November 25th

A civilized Sunday morning breakfast was followed by a nice low-key two-act day today, act I playing out over at Pennington Flash in Leigh to the backdrop of Mariah Carey and Slade et al’s musical take on Yuletide blasting out across the Country Park, interspersed with booming PA announcements concerning the “fun” run currently taking place. We could hear it all from in the Bunting Hide, from which we watched the unperturbed comings and goings of a Willow Tit, in amongst a good variety of more quotidian feeder fare, Bullfinches, Chaffinches, Nuthatches, Coal Tits, Reed Buntings, Stock Doves etc. The boys’ only prior sighting of a Willow Tit was brief views at Fairburn while we were on the way to a short stay on the Yorkshire coast back in spring 2015, and I’m not convinced either of them could really recall it, so I’ve been keen to get out here for another one for a while. With Willow Tit swiftly and efficiently dealt with I gave the boys free rein (or is it free reign? Must look into etymology), and they took advantage of the wide-open spaces and playgrounds to take a break from birding a let off steam, an important part of any kid’s weekend!

Back home for lunch then, and out again this afternoon for act II, just me and Arch this time, for the Slavonian Grebe that’s been flaunting itself on the Brick Pits at Rhyl of late, and which performed admirably for us, coming in close just after we arrived, before drifting back out to the middle of the pool again.

 

[edenwatcher]

A bit quiet of late. Daniel accompanied me on an SOC trip I co-led a couple of weeks ago. Highlights included pintail and greenshank at Kinneil, then rather brief views of the day's main target - 25 or so Taiga bean geese near Slamannan (flushed by a farmer on a quad bike). On Saturday Daniel came with me to Kirkcaldy where we had nice views of a rather jittery flock of 180 waxwings.

Rob

 

[JWN Andrewes]

A walk around the village on Boxing Day was uneventful, but Dippers & Grey Wagtails are always nice to see.

Year list currently stands on 207 same as 2016’s total and a few behind last year, which I’m reasonably happy with considering I lost a lot of time in spring when I was more or less housebound for a spell. That cost us 2 Nearctic Herons, and worse still a local patch Snow Goose! It also meant there was quite a bit of catch up to play on summer visitors once we could get back out. Also motivation has stalled a bit of late, with days off being spent on other family things. Weather has also intervened a few times. Year’s worst dip was Pied Wheatear. At least it wasn’t far, although in some ways that was what made it smart so much!

Bird highlights have been Grey Catbird (first & foremost), the Penzance pelagic, a useful Speyside trip, Honey Buzzards, Willow Tit and local Ring-necked Duck & Bonaparte’s Gull. Beluga was far and away the mammal highlight, with honourable mention going to Boar & Badgers. Bird list now at 282, mammal list 32.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

As far as targets are concerned, it depends how you count them. “Any new Shearwater” was a target, and we got three, but strictly speaking I would judge that as one target hit rather than three. Same with Skuas, which leaves us one short of obtaining half the target species, although with Woodcock we completed 2017’s targets at last. We also got one more tick than was required to halve the distance to 300.

 

[edenwatcher]

A few recent outings with Daniel. About 3 weeks ago he accompanied on my WeBS count where the clear highlight was a water pipit (lifer for him). Also 3 purple sandpipers and an unseasonal whimbrel (albeit present for about the 11th winter!). I had a local day out with him a couple of weeks ago seeing 2 redhead smew, 20 whooper swans, a red-necked grebe, some purple sandpipers, corn buntnigs and finishing with the superb sea duck spectacle in St Andrews including 2 surf scoter and over 200 long-tailed ducks. We managed 77 species without really trying.
We went back to St Andrews on the 27th when the surf scoters showed particularly well.
Yesterday we visited the outer Eden estuary seeing little egret, 15 brent geese (1 bernicla with the usual hrota), 2 Slav grebes and plenty of pintail. We ogled the scoter flock again on the way home with at least 80 scaup among them this time.

Rob

 

[JWN Andrewes]

December 31st

A day off for the last day of the year, see if we can’t get that one last target. And I’m kind of breaking a promise to myself here, and going for a Caspian Gull. The fact that there’s an Iceland Gull on site as well helps me to make the decision, as does the fact that both birds seem to be being reported off and on all day so no need for an early start or an evening roost stake out. We arrived on Redgate Lane, Gorton (aka east Manchester) a little after 10:00, and as we pulled up a flock of Gulls lifted off a roof by the road, in which the Iceland Gull was easy to make out.

A few minutes after getting out of the car we were getting excellent views of it sitting up by the recycling plant entrance. So, year tick out the way, time to get down to business, scanning through the flocks of Gulls loafing on surrounding roofs, all the while trying to ignore the sweet, foetid smell of the recycling plant! There was a continuous turnover of birds, which kept the interest going, as did having to move periodically as not all rooftop roost sites were scannable from one place. With the most recent Caspian reported being a 1cy bird I found myself gravitating towards younger looking specimens and concentrating on those with the whiter looking heads, and eventually clocked a likely looking candidate as it alighted with a small group of arriving Herrings. For a brief nanosecond I thought it looked on the long legged side, and then it promptly sat down and I didn’t see it stand at all after that! I felt it had great potential and set about taking some somewhat distant photos, and even did something I haven’t done for years; consulted the field guide while in the field!! I became increasingly convinced this was indeed a what we were after, and was further reassured when another birder turned up and shared my views. She had seen photos on the Manchester Birding forum (I kicked myself for not checking this in advance myself) that she said closely matched this bird (which photos I found myself when I got home, and she was right; same bird).

I had a bit of a wobble before finally inking the tick, but was set right by some co-birdforumers on an ID thread ( https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=371536 ). So there you have it, last target of the year Caspian Gull, a tick for all three of us, and a hugely enjoyable learning process for me! I may even be back. No, really!

We then decamped for a fresher smelling Marbury Country Park, where a couple of sessions staring at Coward reedbed, interspersed with walks through the woods, eventually delivered the goods with views of a skulking Bittern, last new bird of the year, moving the list on to 210.

 

[Farnboro John]

"trying to ignore the sweet, foetid smell of the recycling plant" said the man who works with some of the biggest producers of manure in the world.... :eek!:

Well done nailing Caspo, now unless you take up year-listing you never have to do it again!

John