2016 Annual Summary

Summary 2016

I had decided that 2016 was going to be a good birding year for me and I set myself the target of seeing 200 birds in the UK by the end of the year. To this end I had arranged some holidays that would help us get the less common birds.

January 2016

January was the warmest and wettest January since records began it seems and there was certainly a lot of flooding in some places and our own garden was completely waterlogged. We were both ill for the first two weeks of the year si that was a bit of a shadow over our start to the birding year but, even then, naturally our biggest monthly “haul” of birds was going to be in January so I ticked off 83 species in the first month of the year – not much better than last year !

Highlights of the birding group month were : 12th January to Pennington Flash great views of a mixed flock of Siskin and Lesser Redpolls, two Kingfishers, two Great Spotted Woodpeckers and even a Water Rail ! :19th January, at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands we got long and wonderful views of a Short-eared Owl quartering the marsh from Burton Point. Golden Plover, Kingfisher, Siskin, Linnet, Fieldfare and Redwing were all good birds and all this added up to 43 species for the day. Tatton Park on the 30th was a wash out. Our solo days out gave us great views of a Great Northern Diver at Salford Quays on the9th of January We also took a solo day out to The Wirral where we visited New Brighton, West Kirby, Hoylake, Neston Marsh and Burton Mere Wetlands – all on the same day and managing to get a few “year ticks” along the way. Another solo day out was on the 24th to WWT Martin Mere which gave us a Tawny Owl and a Marsh Harrier as well as a Ross’s Goose.

February 2016

The weather continued to be poor in February and a number of our birding group days out were nothing special. I did get up to 100 birds on my year list so there was only the next 100 to go !!! The only life tick I managed to add was Snow Bunting at Kinmel Bay. –  a bird I have always wanted to see. Locally I was pleased to get great views of a Scaup on Chorlton Water Park on the 5th February. That sunny morning also gave me Siskin and Ring-necked Parakeet to add to my year. One of the grea t highlights of my birding year came in February on the 10th when we saw a fantastic Starling murmuration at Neumann’s Flash. A couple of high tides in February gave us some good birds including  great views of a pair of Short-eared Owls and a Merlin at Neston Old Quay. We returned to Neumann’s Flash again on the 15th and although the numbers of birds had decreased it was still a fantastic show. That day we also got a female Smew on the angling lake at Newchurch Common .and at Marbury Park we got a  Bittern.

March 2016

Our March birding in the UK got off to a slow start as we went on holiday to Lanzarote between the 27th February and the 7th of March. Highlights were good numbers of Houbara Bustards (with one displaying to female/s), Cream-coloured Coursers, Marsh Harrier (a local rarity), plenty of Hoopoes and Trumpeter Finches which was a “life tick” for me. We had thirty two species; perhaps not a particularly high number but, considering the limited habitats that we had time to visit, we were happy enough.

Because of this holiday we missed some birding group Tuesdays but we did get  to RSPB Marshside and we had a few days out on the Wirral with the best on the 25th March we made our first visit to Connah’s Quay Nature Reserve where we got the only UK  “life tick” of the month –  Twite;

April 2016

We had birding group visits to Moore Nature Reserve , Burton Mere Wetlands ,  Wigan Flashes and RSPB Leighton Moss . I think I would have to say that the prize bird was the “life tick” Water Pipit showing really well at Burton Mere Wetlands.

We also had a number of solo days out including to Riverbank Road in Heswall , Woolston Eyes , and a multi-site tour of Red Rocks, Neston Old Quay and Burton Mere Wetlands.

Being Spring, the year list was starting to look a bit better and by the end of the month the year list stood at 124 species seen in the UK.

May 2016

May started with a great chance to add to the year’s birding pleasure – a fortnight in Suffolk and Norfolk. We got 119 species on the holiday and the highlights were probanbly the “life ticks” of Temminck’s Stint at Titchwell, Corn Bunting at Chosely Drying Bars, Turtle Dove at NWT Holmes Dunes and Black Tern at Rutland Water. There were other great sightings that were not “life ticks” though including Stone Curlew at Weeting Heath NWT and a wonderful combination of Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer and Dotterel all from the one standing spot at Chosely Drying Barns & Titchwell NWT

Another delight was getting really close views of a Montagu’s Harrier just a short distance from the cottage (4 Elder Cottages) we were staying at in Thornham in North Norfolk, situated about a mile from RSPB Minsmere.

We missed all the birding group Tuesdays in May because we were on holiday either in East Anglia or towards the end of the month, in the Scottish Highlands. We did squeeze in a solo visit to Upper Goyt Valley and Dane Bower Quarry though, failing to see Ring Ouzel but we did get a fantastic Cuckoo sighting and added Common Redstart, Red Grouse and Dipper to our “year list”

On the 29th of May we set off for a  holiday in the Scottish Highlands. This was part of a round rio as we were really to go to my brother’s for his 70th birthday. In 2014 when we went to Scotland birding at about the same time (perhaps 4 days earlier) we felt that we had done rather better but then we were guided by John Poyner; this time we decided not to be as intense and to try it ourselves. In point of fact, we knew all the right places to go and any shortfall in the number of birds we saw was entirely our own lack of desire to drive for long periods. The weather was fantastic for almost all the trip with only a few weather problems – fog at Cairngorm when looking for Ptarmigan and fog again when we were out on an evening Black Grouse hunt. These two events apart, we could not have wished for better weather and this continued for all of our holiday – more or less ! After a stopover in Dumfries and a  visit WWT Caerlaverock we continued on driving up to Grantown on Spey on the 30th. En route to the hotel we randomly took a took a diversion through the little village of Laggan  where we got great views of a Cuckoo and a “life tick” in the shape of Icterine Warbler. On the 31st we visited many of the familiar sites arounf Grantown including thet Anagach Forest, Lochindorb, Carrbridge, Avielochan and Cairngorm.

At the end of May our species list in the UK was up to 165 we had five “life ticks” for the month !!

June 2016

Our holiday in Scotland crossed over into June with visits to the Findhorn Valley and RSPB Loch Ruthven, Loch Garten, Lochindorb and Nethy Bridge. When we went on from Grantown on SPey to my brothers in New Deer we also managed to do some good birding at The Bullers of Buchan , Loch of Strathbeg , The Ythan Estuary at Newburgh where we got the King Eider again. On our way back we stopped for a while at  RSPB Fowlsheugh and got a boat trip out to the Isle of May which turned out to be a very foggy passage. However, when we got to the island we got unrivalled views of Puffins and Arctic Terns in their thousands and a multitude of Guillemots and Razorbills. The day after that – the 8th – I had the opportunity to fill in the gaps from my trip to the Isle of May getting a boat from North Berwick to the Bass Rock Our last birding visit of the Scottish holiday came on the 10th when we stopped off at Moffat and we discovered the Moffat Community Woodlands home to, among other things, a good number of Garden Warblers. In all, during our Scotland trip we got 89 species, though some of these were actually in May.

We returned back from Scotland just as the birding group was making its annual two-day visit to Anglesey so we missed that and we were due to go to Canada three weeks later  so we did not expect to make many birding Tuesdays. The one we did make was to Marbury Country Park on the 21st and, although, we did not get a huge number of birds, nor even anything particulalry rare, we did get beatiful views of three Kingfishers together and other treats.

So the month ended with our running year list at the end of June at 176 species

July 2016

We were in Canada for the first three weeks of July so not much birding got done at home. The exception to this was a visit to Burton Mere Wetlands on the 28th of July when we added three “year ticks” in one visit, Spotted Crake, Spotted Redshank and NINE Spoonbills. A bit of a poor month numerically but some real quality.

Our year list now stood at 179 – just three more than last month but we had seen some fine birds in Canada that we don’t count for the purpose of this blog.

August 2016

The start of August were spent getting the house and our general affdairs back into order after our long holiday in Canada but by the end of the month we were off again; this time we had ten days around Somerset, Hampshire, Dorset and Avon. This took us from the 20th to the 31st August. Highlights included “year ticks”  of Green Sandpiper (WWT Slimbridge) on 20th, Curlew Sandpiper (WWT Slimbridge) on 21st, Litle Owl (Studland Bay) on 27th, Sparrowhawk (at WWT Steart Marshes) on 28th, Glossy Ibis (Shapwick Heath) on 30th.

Our birding sites included WWT Slimbridge on the 20th , Shapwick Heath , Eyeworth Pond at Fritham ,the walk from Beaulieu Road Station to Denny Woods and back., a boat trip from Keyhaven over to Hurst Castle and another out to Brownsea Island , RSPB Arne and Studland Bay on the 26th and on the 27th a visit to a rather wet Portland Bill gave us a year tick in Little Owl, a bird we rarely see these days and one which is always a joy to find. We rounded the afternoon off with a visit to RSPB Radipole Lake where we got lovely close views of Green and Common Sandpipers together. |On the 28th we went to the new reserve,  WWT Steart Marshes and, on the 30th another visit to Shapwick Heath where we got lots of Great White Egrets, a pair of Glossy Ibises and lots of Little Egrets all in the same view. Our last day was the 31st and we only had time for a few hours again at WWT Slimbrige. We didn’t get anything new but in a small time we still managed to see thirty-two species including lots of waders.

By noon we had to be off to miss the rush hour at home so that marked the end of our break. In all we had seen 88 species of birds and added five new species to my year list which now stood at 184.

September 2016

September was a pretty quiet month although we did get more views of the splendid group of Spoonbills at Burton Mere Wetands and a nice Little Stint there as well. Apart from that there was nothing special in September. The year list ended at 185 – just one more “year tick” this month.

October 2016

We started the month off with a visit to Hoylake, Riverbank Road and Burton Mere Wetlands on the 1st October. for a day if the Wirral Wader Weekend. highlights were year ticks of Sanderling at Hoylake and Black Swan and Cattle Egret at Burton Mere Wetlands.

The birding group also went on a hunt for Bearded Tits at RSPB Leighton Moss on the 11th and we managed to get really good views of one male bird and not so good views of a few others.

I also sneaked in quick 4 day guided birding tour in the Highlands based at Grantown on Spey Although I didn’t get Ptarmigan or Capercaillie I did get a few new “ticks” and got 85 species in all, which wasn’t too bad for a long weekend.

The 25th saw the group at Sandbach Flashes but there was nothing special to see and it was just a nice stroll around on a sunny autumn morning.

Our last day out of the month was on the last day of the month when we went to Ethrow Country Park where we got the first Mandarin Ducks of the year.

So the month ended with a year 109 species seen during the month and a year list of 195 species – only five more to go to reach my personal best of 200 !!

November 2016

We went up to WWT Martin Mere for the North West Birding Festival on the 13th of November where we attended a great talk on eggs by Tim Birkhead. Birding group outings in November included Hoylake, Neston Old Quay at the Harp Inn and Burton Mere Wetlands during and after a modest high tide of 9.2 metres, I missed the next week which was to Neumann’s Flash and the week after that was a return to the Wirral for another high tide on the 15th. This one was a bit bigger high tide but still not really a mega one though we did get more great views of birds of prey. The 22nd was rescheduled and ended up being Pennington Flash where we had good views of a Long-tailed Duck. The only “year tick” in November was Bewick Swan seen from Burton.

The month lise ended at 84 specied and the year list ended at 196 species

December 2016

The last birding group outing of the year was to WWT Martin Mere where the star bird of the day was a Tawny Owl,  roosting in the tree near the Kingfisher Hide. I had hoped a visit to Woolston Eyes on the 10th December might turn up the Green-winged Teal which would have been a good life and year “tick” or a Ruddy Duck but I got neither.

With just four birds short of 200 for the year, the pressure was on. A visit to St Asaph on the 14th and 15th of December gave us the 197th species – a great flock of Waxwings. A one-day trip to Anglesay and Llanbedr-y-Cennin gave mebbird numbers 198 and 199 in Chough and Hawfinch respectively and on the same day at St Asaph I got the 200th bird of the year in the UK and a “life tick” bird – a Sibe at that; a Black-necked Thrush

A look at past birding shows that I got 193 species in 2015 but only 169 in 2015. The new “life ticks” in 2026 were :

Life Ticks In 2016

Species seen in UK in 2016