2017 Annual Summary

2017 Summary

Our birding year got off to a good start with productive trips to North Wales where we got Snow Buntings and Hawfinch. A week later we went to Newchurch Common where we got Red-crested Pochard and Smew.

Less happily we had to go to Portugal for the funeral of a good friend of ours around about the time of my birthday. We had to spend several days there as a result of limited flights in winter, so we consoled ourselves with walks around Lagos where we did some casual birding getting great views of the town’s local White Stork population

February saw us back at North Wales for more Snow Buntings and Hawfinches but a lot of February was taken up with the flu ! By the end of the month we were a bit recovered and we got to Burton Mere Wetlands and Connah’s Quay; at the latter we got good numbers of Twite. At the end of the month we went to Hoylake, Parkgate etc for a high tide.

We rather indulged ourselves with holidays in 2017. We managed to do some birding on most of these, though some of it was rather casual. Our major holiday of the year was at the start of March when we went to Hawai’i via San Francisco. We got lots of new birds in both places but none of the endemic Hawai’ian birds unfortunately – they largely live to high up We did have the pleasure of seeing a real, live Hawai’an Goose (Nene) in Hawai’i though which was something we probably thought was unlikely a few years ago. We managed to get 17 species in San Francisco, 8 of them lifers and in Hawai’i we got 23 species, 18 of those being lifers.

April was quiet for us as we had a non-birding visitor staying with us which took a lump of time out of our schedule but we still got a few visits to the Wirral in and also managed one to Woolston Eyes where we got the first Black-necked Grebes of the year. At the very end of April we started on our second holiday of the year with a visit Rutland Water.

The Rutland Water stop was an en route visit and during May we went on to visit Weeting Heath and Lakenheath Fen, Minsmere, Strumpshaw Fen and Horsey Mere and Cley Marshes before staying at Thornham for a week. We fitted in trips to Titchwell and Holmes Dune. At the latter we got a life tick Red-breasted Flycatcher. We also paid more visits to Chosely drying Barns where we struggled to find Dotterell but did so in the end. We had a great bird list on this trip which is summarised in more detail here

At the end of May we managed to get our annual Ring Ouzels at Dane Bank Quarry as well as Spotted Flycatchers and Tree pipits at the Upper Goyt Valley. A final outing on the 30^th of May gave us excellent views of the breeding Cattle Egrets at Burton Mere Wetlands.

June saw us take one of our annual overnight birding group trips. The first day we were at a very wet Blacktoft Sands where I got a Yellow Wagtail which I hadn’t seen for quite a while. The following day we got all the expected cliff nesting birds at Bempton Cliffs. The rest of June saw us come down with another virus that wiped us both out and precluded any activity never mind birding.

At the start of July we had a very interesting – first – visit to the Gronant Little Tern colony which was really interesting. The big event of July came towards the end though when we set off on our annual Scottish holiday which is summarised here.

Although we were disappointed in the Eagle department as well as others we still had a great holiday  managing to get two life ticks there, Quail at Munlochy Bay 31st July 2017 and Grea Skua on Rum 1^st August 2017.

That holiday  ran through to August. The highlight of August was a visit to Leighton Moss where we got a life-tick (for the UK anyway) juvenile Purple Heron on the 24^th. It was a bit skulking but when the hide cleared out a bit we managed to get it.

September took us to the Wirral for the wader weekend and we at last started to see our garden birds come back into the garden. A rough ride up the path by the tanks at Frodsham Marsh gave us a good year tick of Red-necked Phalarope on the 14^th. Other birding group visits in the month were to the Wirral and Pennington Flash.

October saw us on holiday in Mallorca and we got all the usual birds we would expect. Our holiday arrangements were thrown into some chaos after, first, our accommodation was cancelled on us and then, second, our flight company went bust ! We muddled through though and had a good time as usual in Port de Pollenca with plenty of birding as summarised here.

November, we started with a High Tide on the Wirral on the 5^th getting 52 species in all including Hen Harrier. The birding group had a day out at Martin Mere on the 14^th but we didn’t see the Great Scaup or the Greenland White-fronted Geese we hoped to see.

It had been quite a while since had been to Neumann’s Flash but on the 21^st we got good numbers of birds including winter thrushes and birds of prey. Unbelievably I did not get a Kingfisher until the 28^th November at Burton Mere Wetlands. I still find that hard to believe.

December was very cold and often wet and we didn’t do much birding except the odd foray to the Wirral and a last visit for the year to Marbury where we had hoped to see either the Bittern (I haven’t seen one in 2017 !!) and some Hawfinches. We were disappointed in both respects but it was nice to get a post-Christmas walk in.

So that was the year. I didn’t manage the 200 species in the UK of last year but I did get 190.

Life Ticks in 2017

Red-breasted Flycatcher at Holmes Dunes NWT 6-7^th May 2017.

Quail at Munlochy Bay 31st July 2017

Grea Skua on Rum 1^st August 2017.

Purple Heron Leighton Moss on 24^th August 2017.

Total UK Species Seen in 2017