Another year list?

I'm sat here wondering whether its worth trying once again to start my blog again. I try to kick it off every new year. It must be the excitement of starting afresh and beginning new year lists, where every bird is a tick again, but I wonder whether it'll just be another case of 2 or 3 posts, then me getting bored again and giving up? Who knows but I'm going to give it a go.


Last year I concentrated on my patchwork challenge list, spending most of my time birding the patch at Holme Pierrepont. It was the second time i had done PWC, and after a pretty dismal year in 2014, which only saw me getting 106 species/115 points. I'm sure plenty of decent stuff was seen down there, I just had a crap year and didnt see nearly as much as I'd hoped. However in 2015, I hammered the site a lot more and it paid dividends, and i ended up seeing 115 species, with a much better 129 points. (Anyone not familiar with PWC must be scratching their heads!) This better total was down to more coverage on my part, as well as it being the first year in which the new habitat on blotts pit, consisting of islands and scrapes, was put to the test. It came up trumps, as it attracted a lot more birds to the site, and as a result it is a lot more interesting site to work. Waders especially were well represented, and I managed to get 12 patch ticks that year. Highlights were American Wigeon, Sanderling, Wood sand and Spoonbill. It slowed down a bit in the winter but a Great Northern Diver in December kept things interesting.

So I have decided to do it again, and thus far have racked up 61 species. After a stinking hangover had me pretty much housebound on new years day, I got out on my bike and spent a couple of hours at the patch in the late afternoon of the 2nd. I intended to cover most of the site, but the light failed quickly, but I still managed to get round the whole of blotts pit and get in a few scans of the A52 pit. I was happy to get a few decent birds, including some Red-crested Pochard on the A52, as well as an adult Yellow-legged gull which was gathering with a few herring gulls and greater black-backs to roost as the light was fading. A little egret on Blotts pit was good to see too. Nothing spectacular, but a species list of 47 was a pretty satisfying start.

Last weekend I went up on my bike again on the saturday and covered the Watersports centre and finger ponds first, where I knew I could reliably get Little Grebe (with a decent count of 10 birds) and Grey Wagtail, but not the hoped-for pink footed or egyptian geese which were possible! I then spent an hour or so covering Blotts pit with fellow patcher Alan. There were plenty of wildfowl about but not many gulls, but I was happy with picking up the first Cetti's Warbler of the year, as well as a few Snipe and a flock of 22 Golden Plover were a long awaited site-tick. I had an hour to spare the next day, so popped down the A52 on my bike, stopping to scan the pit from the pull-in near Gamston island, but with little joy. However I did manage an Egyptian Goose on blotts, still not that common on the reserve, but little else was noteworthy!


I'm keeping a Notts list as well, but as with last year, I'm not going to go mad with it, it'll mainly be a list of birds I happen to see throughout the year, rather than something that sees me dashing round the county to tick off every single thing. I'll go for stuff nearby, especially if they're county ticks, and the odd trip to rufford or the dukeries to get a few specialities up there, but i'll not cross the county to tick off something I've seen before. I did have a cheeky Stonechat twitch the other day though, at Barton-in-fabis, but thats only 15 mins from work! Weirdly its a bird i've not caught up with much in Notts, I think i've only seen them on 3 previous occasions!