Lincs coast - 30th September

Ooooh - first blog post of the year and its not even October yet...

I've been thinking about getting over to Lincs again recently, having been excitedly reading rare bird reports and thinking about migration, so got in contact with a few birding pals and tried to get something organised. Unfortunately due to various reasons, today was the first day that I could manage.

I picked up Pete from Bingham at 6am and we headed east, knowing that the coast had been particularly quiet again after another autumn of westerly winds and unfavourable conditions. However we were of the opinion that if we didn't try then we wouldn't see anything at all. A decent outlook, at least then we couldn't be too disappointed.

We decided on giving Rimac another bash and walked from the carpark up to Paradise Pool and back. Migrants were particularly thin on the ground - we only saw a couple of Chiffchaff and one or two Goldcrests. Overhead there was a single Swallow, a few Siskin and a small trickle of Meadow Pipits. The bushes were particularly quiet, so we didnt waste too much time on trying to make something out of nothing. A couple of Marsh Harrier out on the saltmarsh brightened things up a bit though as well as up to 6 Stonechat and a few flocks of Pinkfeet. High tide at Paradise pool was quiet too with just 26 Redshank and a couple of Black-wits among a scattering of gulls.

Paradise!

We decided not to do much of the south of the reserve as it seemed horribly quiet on a quick walk-round, so we relocated to some of the dunes south of Mablethorpe. We settled on Marsh Yard and had a short but productive sea watch whilst eating lunch. Red-throated Divers were settled on the sea with 6 or more seen in various states of moult, but mostly still in summer plumage which was nice to see. An exceptionally close-in Manx Shearwater gave good views too, as did a juvenile Arctic Skua, but otherwise movement was limited to mainly a few Gannets. 

Afterwards we gave the landward side of the dunes a go, but aside from a Short-eared Owl flying over our heads and heading inland, there was little to write home about. The site seemed pretty good though and there was a nice little woodland tucked behind the dunes at one end that looked good for migrants given the right conditions. Today was not one of those days though, all we saw was 2 Muntjac and very few birds, but certainly a site to go back to.

The obligatory 2017 roundup

I'll try to keep this brief, its just quite good to have a look back through the year and see how it's been. Its not been the most amazing of years locally, but I have managed quite a few nice birds throughout the year, some things have gone my way, others not so much.

I'll break this down into 3 sections.

Holme Pierrepont

Things started out well on patch with several sightings of a Great White Egret early on, and some good additions to the patch list in February and March. Spring was OK, but being busy at work and other things meant I couldn't get down to the patch as much as I would have liked, leading to some birds being missed. The Autumn was a bit rubbish, very poor for migrant waders and with that my enthusiasm started to fizzle out, as often happens, and I began to look further afield. Buying a house certainly reduced birding time too!

All that aside, there have been some highlights, including 5 patch ticks - Wood Warbler, Red-rumped Swallow, Pintail and Cattle and Great white egrets. Several Black-necked Grebe sightings added to the interest, as well as Black Terns in spring and Autumn. Other goodies included a Turnstone, Knot and several Whimbrel, as well as a few Garganey, and a Sibe Chiff. Narrow misses were Bar-tailed Godwit, Sanderling and Wood Sandpiper, whilst 'easy' birds such as Green Sand, Greenshank and Ruff were all notable by their absence (on my list!)

I ended on 124 species - 130 was my unofficial target - and as far as i know there were roughly 160 species seen on site throughout the whole year, so many missed birds... must try harder!

Notts Birds

Its been a reasonable year for scarcer birds in the county, and I managed 150 species without trying too hard really. Obvious highlights were the Bee-eaters at East Leake, Great Grey Shrike at Owthorpe and only my 2nd county Black-throated diver at Hoveringham. Several Glaucs and Casps at the Hov gull roost and Cotham tip were nice, though I failed to see any Med Gulls in the county this year! Several Scaup (Kilvington, Holme Pierrepont and Stoke Bardolph) were nice. I finally added Ring Ouzel to my notts list, after failing so many times in the past, and Gannet and Bean goose were also accounted for!

Further Afield

I attempted to see 200 species in Britain this year and fell short at 187 species. I thought a bit of autumn birding could have helped things along a bit, but several trips to the coast were pretty poor in terms of migrants, not helped by slow birding back home. However, my attempts resulted in some nice birds seen, including 14 UK ticks. A Long-tailed duck over the border in Derbys was nice, a Long-billed Dowitcher in Lincs and Pec and Curlew sandpipers at Spurn added to the wader total, and a range of breeding seabirds seen on a trip to scotland, along with crested tit (but no eagles or capers!). A late Snow Bunting in mablethorpe was the last of the year.

Other decent birds were the long-staying American Wigeon at Rutland, with other decent birds there including Little Stint, Wood Sandpiper, Red-breasted Merganser and a load of Great White Egrets throughout the year. The Velvet Scoter at Staunton Harold Res in Derbys did the decent thing and hung on til after new year, meaning i could get it on the 2017 list a few weeks after initially seeing it in 2016.

There are many birds that could have made up the 13 species i'd have needed to get to 200, the most sore being Bittern, Great Northern Diver and Gropper! If i had tried a little harder Slavonian Grebe would have been relatively easy (birds at hov and collingham, i think!), and the same goes for Spoonbill (didn't bother going for the Erewash bird) Ring-necked parakeet (missed em in Bridgford, couldn't be bothered with the Wollaton birds!) and a host of many others. Still, it wasn't a bad year overall and what I did see was without busting a gut too much!

Going to take it as it comes this year, will still be doing Holme Pierrepont when I can, and will try my best to keep an eye on things at Colwick Park too, seeing as its on my doorstep and underwatched (could be that its not particularly good - but surely somethings lurking there somewhere!). Other than that I'll just try and get out and see good birds, and who knows maybe find something decent along the way too? Probably not though...