AA Birdpix, Birds, Travel and More

  Happy New Year I'm writing this on New year's day, and my year list currently stands at about five. Happily the first bird on my list was Greenfinch (it's usually Wood Pigeon or Black-headed Gull seen in flight), followed by Blue Tit, Robin and Great Tit. Things are quiet in the garden, but the birds are around, just not using the feeders much. There could be a number of reasons, the local Sparrowhawks, a cat which I haven't yet been able to dissuade from entering our garden (poor shot with the half-brick)* or the likely reason being there are still insects around. Despite the cold nights I have been seeing bees (or hover-flies?) recently on the winter honeysuckle outside my window. The inside of the shrubs behind the feeder must be warmer and still providing food, why would birds come to the feeders?  I rarely do a New Year's Day list, for various reasons, but good luck to those who are, especially if connected to charity. To me it's a bit like playing footba...

That time of year  In common with many birders December is not really our favourite month. Whilst we're not active Scrooges, we get fed up with constant bombardment of Xmas adverts, and having to do things we don't really want to because of "tradition". Nuff said, there have been some memorable Christmases. We once had Xmas dinner in an Australian hotel, which was great. There is a much more laid-back attitude there, whether it's because it's summer I don't know, but shops have small displays and there isn't so much light pollution. The only blow-up Santa we saw was the one below. And the Robins are more stunning. This is a Flame Robin, there's even a pink one! A record of Siberian Thrush has always intrigued me, being on Christmas Day in Great Yarmouth, in 1977, and during research for my website I found the original report in British Birds. Only the second accepted record, the finder was birding in Great Yarmouth cemetary (a luxury few of us are ...

Best Year Ever ? As  I'm compiling photos of Category A birds I'm obviously going over old records and photographs, and have begun to wonder "what was the best year ever for twitching in the UK?" Obviously not this year, but it's very much in the eye of the beholder. I would contend that the best year was one in the best era for twitching which was undoubtedely the last two decades of the 20th century. There were far fewer birders then and most twitchers knew each other, but there were birds that haven't occured again, and it was a lot more fun. Obviously a personal opinion, but I think anyone who was birding then would agree. To an extent, the best year will always be the one when you saw the best birds, but hardcore twitchers in those days tended to see everything unless there was a good reason (such as hospitalisation, or possibly your wedding day, although that is open to debate). Work commitments didn't count, as most twitchers were in a position to p...

  Warblers-Marmite birds? I am always working on my website, my current project is to illustrate every bird on Category A of the British List. I am quite a long way in, and have come to "old world" warblers.  Like gulls, warblers, particularly  Phyllosopus, seem to either provide great interest and a challenge, or are something to be ticked and then forgotten. I used to be somewhat in the latter group, but researching for my website has thrown up many interesting facts about vagrants to Britain.  Many firsts for Britain in the 21st century have been warblers, including Eastern Crowned,  Pale Legged Leaf and Olive-tree. Several have been as a result of splits, and older records were rarely assigned to the relevant subspecies. This is rarely important since few records exist, and they can be re-examined, however in the case of Subalpine Warblers it really isn't possible. Adult male birds aren't too bad, but females and immatures can be impossible to assign to one...

  A long time before the next one? As I suspected, my last blog was not the end of the story. Shetland this year was somewhat different, mainly in terms of numbers of birds, but also birders. Having left the queue for the Unst ferry to retrace my journey and continue to Mainland for the Siberian Thrush, I wasn't about to leave Yell again without a good reason. However, I always spend a couple of days on Mainland before taking the ferry home, and, as the thrush was now showing regularly in the garden, I went back and finally managed to get a photo, just like I had returning to a White's Thrush a few years ago. Back home, I have been compiling a new web page attempting to illustrate every British species, and got to Brunnich's Guillemot. For those that have been around a while, this was another of those birds that was always just out of reach for various reasons, and has probably reverted to the same status now. Its similarity to Common Guillemot means that many birds must be...

Two Musings for the price of one I am currently on Shetland, and as I feel I'm entitled at my age to stay indoors when it's wet and windy, I'm working on my website at times. My latest "project" is to show a photo of every Category A species on the British List. Of course, many of these will have been taken abroad, some will have eluded me thus far so it gives me an incentive to continue birding (I will even twitch  something if it's a world tick!)                              One of the species I have a love-hate relationship with is Siberian Thrush. When I started birding the old Shell guide was "the" field guide;  it had a separate section at the back for rarities, and therein was a bird I was immediately attracted to, with three records at the time of publication. One of these has subsequently become "not proven", but of the other two, one was on the Isle of May in 1954, and the other, in Great Yarm...