2014 Summary

I had to put my hobby on hold during December due to illness and busyness with buying a house, working and coursework for my degree due. I've still been reading about birds (H for Hawk, Birdwatching magazine and Stephen Moss amongst others) and keeping an eye on the various reporting sites though. All in all I spent only around 5 months of this year (June - Nov) on birding at the weekends but it still was very memorable for me and I hit my target of 100.

I'll have a new garden within a couple of months but in the 8 years I lived here in this one I have had great garden sightings for a very small patio garden in the middle of a council estate. Highlights included regular Goldfinches, Buzzards flying over (and perched on neighbour's roof), 2 Grey Wagtails that have become recent flyovers, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a territory-zealous Dunnock (now called a Hedge Accentor apparently, I learned today) who guards the bird feeder and his bush home against blackbirds, collared doves and in particular his nemesis the Robin.

As I'd never kept any form of bird list before 2014 all my birds were lifers this year but lifers in the true sense and highlights of my year were Osprey, Whooper and Bewicks Swans, Goldcrest (when pursuing Hawfinch which still eluded me) and a Ringed Plover doing it's funny "distraction dance" to lead me away from the nest at a building site I was working at.

Birding feels real and adds a different dimension to life which I am so glad to have rekindled. Although the listing element is just a cherry on top as it's watching any birds I enjoy, I finished the year with 113 species on my UK year list (and therefore my life list) which placed me 283 on Bubo rankings.

2015 is going to be a busy one for me with hopefully moving into my new house and completely renovating it, completing my degree and continuing in my full time job. Luckily birds are everywhere though and I can't wait to see what 2015 brings my way!

Martin Mere for the NW England Birdwatching Festival

Martin Mere for the NW England Birdwatching Festival:
Whooper, Bewick and Mute Swans
Pintail
Garganey
Gadwall
Tawny Owl
Buzzard
Kestrel
Shelduck
Pink Footed Geese
Greylag Geese
Barnacle Geese
Pochard
Reed Bunting
Blue, Great and Long-Tailed Tits
Robins
Blackbirds
Fieldfares (not seen properly by me but another in the party)
Magpie
Wood Pigeon
Goldfinch
Chaffinch
Starling

Falconry Gift Experience

For my birthday in June I received a voucher for an "Owl Experience" at Gauntlet Birds of Prey Centre. I used it in November after returning from Finland,  I didn't get to handle the Snowy or European Eagle Owls that I had been hoping for but there were still some amazing birds:
Tawny Owl
Long Eared Owl (Eric, now fully grown who I had handled at my first Experience Day when he was six months)
Russian Scops Owl (noisy!!)
Chaco Owl
Barn Owl (American)
Great Grey Owl
Little Owl (preferred running!!)
African Eagle Owl

Helsinki 1st Nov 2014

Away with work in various parts of Finland for the week and I got chance for a couple of hours birding on Saturday morning on the way home whilst waiting for my connecting flight in Helsinki. I was staying in the Radisson Blu which was only a few minutes walk from the botanical garden and parliament square, both of which had plenty of birds (albeit mostly birds I could find at home but still!). I did see an interesting squirrel though!

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Risley Moss 18th Oct

Sunny 19 degrees, light winds, 4pm Saturday afternoon

We only had about 30 mins, with around 15 in the woodland hide and 5 at the tower hide area

1 GS Woodpecker
2 Nuthatch
3 Blue Tit
5 Great Tit
10+ woodpigeon
4+ magpie
2x chaffinch
1x willow Tit
100s of mixed gulls over the rubbish tip
4x grey squirrel

Staring at cattle (again) at Burton Mere RSPB

With reports that the Cattle Egret is still around at Burton Mere, we headed back over there to see if we would be more successful than our visit a few weeks prior. No Cattle Egret for us, although the RSPB warden said it had been there with the cows that morning again. It seems am is the best time to go for it so maybe we will be lucky another time if the bird remains.

It was a quiet day at Burton Mere but we still saw a few other birds. Notably a Black Swan (which I didn't add to the list as assuming it's a captive escapee) and the only one new for the list - Greenshank, bringing my year total to 112 so far  :)

Canada Geese

Greenshank

Greenshank

 

 

 

Birds seen: Lapwing, Greylag Geese, Pink-Footed Geese, Canada Geese, 9x Greenshank, 2x Kestrel, 5x Buzzard, Teal, Shoveler, Black Swan (Escapee), Mute Swan, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Wood Pigeon, Tufted Duck, Coot, Moorhen, Magpie, Mallard

Just another Jay at the office..

We've been noticing Jays near some local offices in Birchwood so we stopped by one quiet Sunday to see if we could take a few pictures. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes of us arriving a Jay started showing, proof that once you know an individual birds habits it is likely to be in the same spot!

 

We later went on to Dovestone RSPB for the first time, traffic getting there was hideous, with the route going through the centre of Manchester so it would have had to be good for us to want to go back. Unfortunately when we got there it turned out to be some kind of local blackpool resort rather than the peace and tranquillity we were hoping for. people were everywhere!

 

Dog walkers, people with prams, groups of youths and families out forcing their kids for a walk. Every time we thought we saw a bird it was immediately scared off by a child/dog running at it.  The only sanctuary we found was a small memorial garden but it was virtually paved in dog crap so after an hour or so we called it quits and left.

Buzzard at Dovestone

View from the field of crap (or Memorial Garden as it is otherwise known).

Unknown hawk - we watched this flying, hunting and perching for a good half hour and it displayed no Kestrel-identifying hovering behaviour despite looking like a Kestrel in the below picture.