2022 Year List begins

 I was very lucky to start this year's birding with a few hours on Holy Island, Northumberland. My first species seen was Blackbird, followed closely by Robin, Curlew and Grey Heron. Whilst there, I managed a total of 35 species, including Pale-bellied Brent Goose, Red-throated Diver and Red-breasted Merganser.

After Holy Island, I drove to Budle Bay, where I added several new species to the list (numbers 36 - 42). The last two places visited were Warkworth Beach and Amble Harbour, where species 43 - 55 were seen.

Mediterranean Gull (Amble harbour)

Year List 2022:

1 - Blackbird 

2 - Robin 

3 - Curlew 

4 - Grey Heron 

5 - Oystercatcher 

6 - Herring Gull

7 - Black-headed Gull 

8 - Great Black-backed Gull 

9 - Skylark 

10- Rock Pipit 

11 - Pied Wagtail 

12 - Eider Duck 

13 - Starling 

14 - House Sparrow 

15 - Jackdaw 

16 - Carrion Crow 

17 - Redwing

18 - Ringed Plover 

19 - Dunlin 

20 - Redshank 21 - 

Brent Goose (Pale-bellied) 

22 - Shag

23 -  Red-breasted Merganser 

24- Red-throated Diver 

25- Blue Tit 

26- Dunnock 

27 - Little Grebe 

28 - Little Egret 

29 - Lapwing 

30 - Teal 

31 - Shoveler 

32 - Collared Dove 

33 - Pheasant 

34 - Goldfinch 

35 - Chaffinch 

36 - Magpie 

37 - Mistle Thrush 

38 - Mallard 

39 - Shelduck 

40 - Wigeon

41 - Knot 

42 - Lapwing 

43 - Guillemot 

44 - Great-crested Grebe 

45 - Stonechat 

46 - Common Scoter 

47 - Common Gull 

48 - Bullfinch 

49 - Woodpigeon 

50 - Cormorant

51 - Turnstone 

52 - Mediterranean Gull 

53 - Whooper Swan 

54 - Pink-footed Goose 

55 - Feral Pigeon

Northumberland Birding

 This Bank Holiday weekend I was up in Northumberland with Jayne. We had visits to St Mary's Island (Whitley Bay), Amble and Bamburgh, and recorded some nice birds, including six "year ticks".

We started at St Mary's Island on Saturday in 40 mph winds and driving rain!! Despite the weather conditions we saw many wader species including Dunlin, Sanderling, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Golden Plover, Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatcher. Other birds seen here were: Herring, Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls; Sandwich and Arctic Terns, Eider Ducks and 5 fly-by Pale-bellied Brent Geese.

On Sunday we had a walk around the harbour at Amble, where we added Mediterranean Gull (1 adult) and Shag to the weekend's bird list. The Shag, a first year bird, was ringed with a darvic XUN, and had been ringed on 20th June 2020, as a chick, on the Isle of May.

Mediterranean Gull

Shag XUN

After a quick walk around Warkworth, we headed up to Bamburgh, where we had a walk around "Stag Rocks", adding Purple Sandpiper (1 bird) to the Year List.

Year List update:

158 – Pale-bellied Brent Goose 

159 – Eider Duck

160 – Arctic Tern

161 – Golden Plover

162 – Sanderling

163 – Purple Sandpiper

Two Unexpected Year Ticks

Jayne and I have just spent a couple of days in Dublin, celebrating a couple of friends' birthday, and, as well as having a very great time, we've also managed to add a couple of new, unexpected species to the "Year List"; Hooded Crow and Pale-bellied Brent Goose.

The first bird, Hooded Crow, was quite a surprise, as I hadn't even thought about this species being present in Ireland! Checking the Bird Watch Ireland website however, shows that it's the main crow species in Ireland (see website here). We saw this species a couple of times, including in the middle of Dublin. We also saw a few other corvids, namely Jackdaw, Rook and Magpie.

The second species, Pale-bellied Brent Goose, was an even bigger surprise, as we spotted these birds whilst driving back to the airport! Six birds were flying over, and then landed on the River Liffey. Again, the Bird Watch Ireland website shows this race of Brent Goose to be the commonest one in Ireland, with the Dark-bellied race being much less common (see website here). My only English records of this race is in  Holy Island, Northumberland, with these birds consisting of birds that breed in Svalbard. The Dublin Bay population breeds in Arctic Canada and Greenland, before spending the winter in Ireland. See this excellent Bird Guides article of the different races.

Year List update:
120 - Hooded Crow
121 - Pale-bellied Brent Goose

Wales - 20th - 22nd February 2011

Just been away for a few days to Wales with the family, so I thought I'd let you know how we got on. Though not principally a birding trip, we did manage to get some good "ticks".

First stop was Caernarfon where, amongst a few Redshank, Curlew, Mallard, Wigeon, 2 Mute Swans and Oystercatchers I spotted a group of 15 Red-breasted Mergansers fishing in the Menai Straits.

Red-breasted Mergansers

Also feeding on the sandy banks were a small flock of 6 Pale-bellied Brent Geese.

Next day saw us travel down to the south of the Llyn Penninsula where our first stop was the village of Portmerion. As well as looking around the interesting architecture we also managed to add Raven and Little Egret to the trip list.

Porthmadog was the next stop. Looking over the estuary several more Curlew were seen, along with Redshank, Wigeon, more Oystercatcher and a few Teal.

A short drive further down the coast brought us to Criccieth where 20+ Common Scoter and 1 winter plumage Great-crested Grebe were fishing in the bay.

Common Scoter

The last stop of the day was Abersoch. Unfortunately the rain started here so the only real sightings were Great Black-backed, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls loafing, swimming and preening in the river on the beach. Nice to get all three species together in one photgraph.