2012 Review: A mixed year!

2011 was an awesome birding year for me, with some great birds like Upland Sandpiper, Scarlet Tanager, Solitary Sandpiper, Northern Waterthrush and Isabelline Wheatear to name but a few. It was always going to be hard for 2012 to live up to the expectations set in 2011 and not surprisingly it generally didn't. Despite this there was several enjoyable avian moments in 2012, some of which are outlined below:

Most of my birding was local this year with the odd trip to the Northumberland, Yorkshire and Durham coasts, the Scillies and South Coast and a few other locations in between. My highlights this year included: Dark-eyed Junco, Spanish Sparrow, 2 Paddyfield Warblers, Red-rumped Swallow, Roller, Bee-eater, Western Bonelli's Warbler, Common Crane, Bittern, Pallid Harrier, Solitary Sandpiper, Blackpoll Warbler, Short-toed Lark, Dusky Warbler, American Buff-bellied Pipit - some pictures of some of these below.

Also had a really enjoyable trip to The Brenne area in France and although I didn't get any 'lifers' it was an incredible location and was fantastic to be able to see some great birds like Bonelli's Eagle, Black Woodpecker, Bee-eater, Black Stork, Honey Buzzard etc and all in beautiful, peaceful scenery. I'll definitely be going back here - loved it!

There was also some great local birding in the York Area with several of the big guns going for the year-list record of 170 species (set in 2006). At least four people that I know broke the record with Tim coming out on top with 174 species. I missed the majority of wader passage whilst I was in France so was never in with a shout but was happy with finishing on 159 species, the majority of which were on my local patch (or in the LDV) and self-found so fairly pleasing. I even managed a couple that Tim didn't; most notably Red-rumped Swallow, Black Tern and Whinchat...

So what does 2013 have to offer, who knows! A 3 week birding trip to Malaysia for starters and maybe either France/USA in the summer and possibly Thailand next Christmas, but that's a long way off...

Thanks for reading the blog over 2012, I hope you've enjoyed it and here's to a great 2013! Incidentally this is my 500th post and I've had over a quarter of a million hits on my blog now! Thank you!

Bee-eater - Durham

Dark-eyed Junco - Hampshire

Bittern - North Yorkshire

Buff-bellied Pipit - Berkshire

Paddyfield Warbler - Cornwall

Blackpoll Warbler - Isles of Scilly

Solitary Sandpiper - Isles of Scilly

Dusky Warbler - Durham

Red-breasted Flycatcher - East Yorkshire

Black Tern - North Yorkshire (phone-scoped)

Garganey In the Hand! (Phone-picture)

Pallid Harrier - South Yorkshire (Phone-scoped)

Roller - East Yorkshire  (Phone-scoped)

Common Cranes - Down South! (Phone-scoped)

Western Bonelli's Warbler - Yorkshire

Golden Oriole - France (Phone-scoped)

Black Woodpecker - France (Phone-scoped)

Melodious Warbler - France (Phone-scoped)

Red-backed Shrike - France (Phone-scoped)

Hoopoe - France (Phone-scoped)

  

Bee-eaters at Breeding Colony - France (Phone-scoped)

Purple Heron at nest - France (Phone-scoped)

Western Bonelli's Warbler - France (Phone-scoped)

Black Redstart - France (Phone-scoped)

Woodchat Shrike at nest site - France (Phone-scoped)

Me birding in France!

Scillies 2012 - Part 1 - Journey South and Paddyfield Warbler

Last Friday morning Dave and I set off for our annual Scillies trip in the hope of some American passerines, or anything else that we 'needed'! It was going to be hard to live up to last years two adventures there in September and October 2011. However we gave it a good go!

Back in February we'd had a successful weekend twitch for the Spanish Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco and Paddyfield Warbler. Great views of the first two, but only satisfactory views of the latter. So news that there was a Paddyfield Warbler 'showing well' on the Lizard was cool and we decided to drop in and take a look on our way to the Lands End YHA.

Unlike at Pagham Harbour where we waited for hours in the freezing cold for brief views we literally rocked up at Church Cove to be greeted by the bird showing well down to about 12 feet in blazing sun! I managed the following photos. It was great to be able to really study this bird.

Paddyfield Warbler © Andy Walker 2012

Paddyfield Warbler © Andy Walker 2012 

Paddyfield Warbler © Andy Walker 2012 

Paddyfield Warbler © Andy Walker 2012 

Paddyfield Warbler © Andy Walker 2012 

Paddyfield Warbler © Andy Walker 2012 

Paddyfield Warbler © Andy Walker 2012

After enjoying the Paddyfield Warbler we headed to the Youth Hostel in the Cot Valley where a short walk near dusk produced a couple of Firecrest (between 3-4 I'd guess) a Blackcap and a Pied Flycatcher. A couple of Raven flew over, as did a Merlin. We were expecting a nice flight to the Scillies in the morning so a few ciders couldn't hurt could they... 

Very Special Weekend - Mega Central!

Its been a long time coming, on New Year's Eve I got a message about the Dark-eyed Junco in Hampshire, it would have to wait - which was a blessing in disguise as a couple of weeks later news came out of a Spanish Sparrow not far away from the Junco. A plan was hatched to twitch the birds but the day before we were going to go I couldn't be bothered with the drive so we bailed. Again this seemed to work in our favour as last week a Paddyfield Warbler (and apparent Parrot Crossbill) was found near to the Junco and Sparrow location. Another plan was hatched, what could go wrong... we hadn't banked on wind, snow, rain and freezing weather conditions!

Rodney came round to mine late Friday afternoon and we set of around 5pm. A very smooth drive got us down to the B&B to the south of Southampton at around 10pm. The only bird of note was a York area Little Owl just south of North Duffield at dusk.

Early Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny, yet incredibly cold day and went straight to the council estate at Calshot and waited for the Spanish Sparrow to show up, this didn't take long - good job as it was freezing! A really impressive bird that showed well on a roof, a telegraph pole, a road and then in a hedge next to a plastic bag! Real natural birding!!! There was plenty of other birds in the area such as Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit etc. I only managed the following shot as my hands were too cold to work the phone.


Spanish Sparrow - phone shot

We then headed over to the New Forest and Hawkhill Plantation – a beautiful area, much nicer surroundings to bird in. The sound of displaying Common Crossbill and Siskin rang out from the car park and during the morning both gave great views. As we walked to the Junco spot a couple of Woodlarks could be heard singing and were soon seen overheard, obviously not bothered by the minus temperatures. We waited for two hours with no sign of the Junco (that had been seen just prior to our arrival).

By this point we were both really getting cold so I decided to stretch my legs and go water the trees, at this time I walked away from the crowd of 8. With a kitkat in my mouth I looked up at some movement, the Dark-eyed Junco was sat in the tree right in front of me and I was the only one there! I looked round wanting to get Rodneys attention but it was quite hard to whistle with a mouth full of chocolate! Eventually I got his, and the others attention and they all came over and after a while the bird gave itself up feeding high in the pine trees. It then flew off, calling as it went where it dropped right onto the bird feeding area, a quick and careful maneuver and we were stood less than 12 feet away watching it feed. If only the others had of been as careful, they came charging over and flushed it. The bird was quite vocal so as it flew off I tracked it back to the area I’d had it originally so Rodney and I quietly went our own way and spent 10 minutes watching the bird on our own in a bit of peace and quiet. A fantastic bird.


Dark-eyed Junco - taken on my phone


Dark-eyed Junco - taken on my phone

This was a really nice bird and area in general and if it had of been a bit warmer we’d have probably had a bit more of a look around. Instead we headed out of Hampshire into and increasingly cloudy West Sussex and Pagham Harbour. I’d not been to this location before so wanted to get the access sorted for Sunday morning. We had a walk about along the North Wall enjoying Stonechat, Bearded Tit and lots of Water Rail out on the ice, and witnessed some amazing stringing such as:

Member of the crowd: “That’s it” [Paddyfield Warbler]. No that’s a Stonechat.
Another equally skilled member of the crowd: “That’s it” [Paddyfield Warbler]. No that’s a Robin.

This went on with Dunnock, Wren and Reed Bunting! It then got even better when two Meadow Pipits landed in the bush where the Paddyfield Warbler had been ‘showing well’ (at over 100m range….): Member of the crowd: “Looks like Yellowhammer to me…..” It was clear that many were going to tick whatever they wanted, so we left! It was really, really cold by this point and not much fun.

Sunday morning saw us back on the North Wall at Pagham and after an hour plus wait we were rewarded with a brief but satisfactory view of the Paddyfield Warbler as it fed in the grass along the wall. Happy with our view we decided to head for home rather than try for the putative Parrot Crossbill, slightly worried about the route back with all the snow – however, despite a few jackknifed lorries a good journey home was had. I even managed to finish off the day with a nice walk with the dogs in Harrogate in the snow and enjoyed a few Red Kite as the sun set.


Walking the dogs in the snow

All in all a great weekend with good birds from Siberia, Southern Europe and the United States!