So another year gone.

The last day of a great year birding with the boys.  we have been all over this great country of ours, we have seen some fantastic birds & been to some really nice places along the way, we have meet many many nice people, I can't remember ever meeting anybody that I disliked while birding,odds & sods & plenty of fruitcakes maybe but on the whole nice people.
The last twitch of the year at Portland Harbour was the biggest that I have been on, with over a thousand birders turning up for the Brunnich's Guillemot.
The wettest twitch was at Hayling Island when we caught the tail end of the Hurricane, but it did give me my 300th lifer with the Semipalmated Plover so worth it.
The best day out we had was when we went to Somerset for Pied-billed Grebe at Hamwall, we then drove over to Devon for our first Cirl Buntings, stopping on the way to pick up Lesser-yellowleg Gull & Rose- coloured Starling plus the American Wigeon, a long drive but four lifers in a single day made this a day to remember.
The Capercaillie & Ptarmigan in Scotland made that a really great trip as well, we thought we had missed out on the Caper for the second year but picked it up on the last morning of the trip a right bonus that.
The best bird for me was the European Roller seen at Horsey a really colourful bird & not one I thought I would ever see.
A trip to the Isle of Wight for the Wilsons Phalarope meant that we meet Dave Aitken from Bempton Cliffs which was nice as we have meet him on other twitches since then & we keep an eye on his Bubo list to see where he has been to & what birds he has seen,although the birds seem to keep heading up near his patch that makes it easier for him, but to be fair he does put in a lot of miles for the sake of his hobby, I think maybe we are a bit jealous of where he is stationed. Also nice to bump into John at a lot of the twitches, who I spent a nice day with watching the  the Otters at Thetford one of the few times Robert has been able to make it this year.
The friendliness bird was the Red-backed Shrike in Essex that kept coming back & posing in full view for some great photos. A night trip to the Brecks to see & hear Nightjar was something special,  that sound was unbelievable to me who had never heard it before.
My target bird for the year was the Long-eared Owl that had eluded me for the last couple of years, was seen at Minsmere, glad that one is out of the way.
So I end the year on 265 birds seen this year, that is my top score so far in the four years that I have been listing I started with the first year 220 the second year ended with 223 the third year gave me a total of 252 so a great effort this year to finish on the 265. this is way behind the big boys but I am really happy to have achieved this many with the pleasure that I have got from being out & about with the boys.
On the first day of 2013 we listed 89 ticks at & on the way to Tichwell, the first bird seen was a Barn Owl the same as the year before at almost the same sport, so up early tomorrow to start it all again.
Hope to meet up with old birders that I have meet over the past few years & look forward to meeting some new ones, & maybe some more lifers along the way. so the last thing to do is wish everybody a very happy new year & good birding.

Mega,Brunnich's Guillemot at Portland Harbour.

Brian pops over on Friday evening to see if we wanted to travel 168 miles to Poole in Dorset for a lifer for all of us, I was a little bit unsure if I wanted to go that far, but with it not being to far from Gosport we could try for the Ring-billed Gull that is reported to be at Walpole lake, so up at 4 o'clock & in under 3 hours we pull into Portland Harbour & see a lot of birders already set up along the harbour wall
we only have to wait  a couple of minutes & we have another lifer in the bag,over the next three hours we get great views of the Brunnich's popping up here there & every where in the harbour.
The crowd has now swollen to many hundreds,the biggest twitch that I have seen.
While here we pick out our first Black Guillemot in England in winter plumage very nice that one, also Great northern Diver plus many Merganser swimming in line, also a Kingfisher flies up & down for a short while,razorbill &Shag also show.
We sport many familiar faces among the crowd so a really great time spent here.
Off now to look for the Gull but we stop off at Radipole Lake just to see if any thing about, not much as it turns out, but we are told a Glossy Ibis is in a park not to far down the road, so we pull into the car park & there it is on the flooded field in front of us. Photo's taken then it's off to drive the 80 odd miles to pick out the Ring- billed Gull in Walpole park Gosport, once again we get on to the Gull as soon as we arrive, a local lady  is already feeding the birds with some waffles & our bird is in with the flock enjoying a treat good on her.
A long drive but it turns out to be a really great day & nice to get the life & year ticks going again, thanks to Brian for doing the hard part in getting us here today with the long drive.

The Brunnich's Guillemot

Part of the flock.

Glossy Ibis

Ringed-billed Gull

Brunnich's Guillemot

Glossy Ibis

Nice day at Tilbury & Rainham.

A nice few hours spent with Jimmy at  Tilbury Fort, the first birds  we see are two Grey Plovers sitting on posts in the water in front of us.
It was high tide so not anything on the foreshore to see, a shame that as we hoping to pick up a Yellow-legged Gull that was the target bird for the day, but out in the middle of the water we see 2,000 Avocets & many Shellduck also a pair of Stonechat popping about in the long grass in front of us, Corn Bunting are flying about,also Greenfinch & Chaffinch in good numbers.
We now head to Rainham just to have a quick look at the stone barges they are packed full of Black-tailed Godwits & Redshanks also three or four Dunling seen.
The Gulls had all headed over to the other side of the Thames so once again no Yellow- legged  Gull.
Silly that Jimmy & I still need this Gull for a year tick but it's not one that we really looked for until now, when we saw that it was missing from the year list.
A really nice few hours spent birding, on a rather nice day.

Grey Plover

A few of the Godwits

Trip to Eastbourne Black-throated Diver.

After a bit of a mix up as to where to head to we end up in Eastbourne in Sussex. The other option was to go to Dorset for the Surf Scoter that would have been a lifer for all of us, but as I said we all got our wires crossed with Brian not knowing about this bird & we were half way to Eastbourne before Jimmy & myself spoke about it,so we just hope we can get some good close up views of the Black-throated Diver that we find on Crumbles Pond in Princes Park.
Its a busy local spot, with runners & Dog walkers stopping the Diver from getting to near to us as it stays near the middle of the pond.
While here a good few photographers arrive but I don't think they got any fantastic photos of it.

Black-throated Diver

Wigeon

Not the best day day birding that we have had as it was a long drive for such little reward, the diver could have been a bit more sociable, but it was still a better choice than
watching Arsenal as it turns out.

Afternoon at Amwell.

With Jimmy on holiday from work, we have an afternoon at Amwell nature reserve, it's only 20 minutes from home so it's no hardship driving there.
We arrive just after one o'clock & spend a good three hours just looking around, we start at Great Hardmead Lake & that is full of Gulls, also many Shoveler are seen swimming all over the lake,we pick out a male Pintail really nice that, a Snipe flies in & lands on the Island, then we see a Water Rail walk about in front of us for a good few minutes, the lake is full of all the usual like Tufted Duck, Gadwell,Great-crested Grebe,Mallard,Cormorant,Pochard.
Then we see two male Goldeneye  four female as well, as Jimmy scopes them he See's a female Smew swimming with them.
We decide to walk round the back of the reserve to find some feeders hanging between some trees not to far from the road, while here we see Long-tailed Tits, at least six Redwing along with loads of Chaffinch, a pair of Greenfinch pop in & out of the trees, then we notice a Buzzard not to far away from us, the light is not good but we are close enough to get a photo of sorts.
All in all a very nice afternoon birding.

The Buzzard

And again

Good times.

As a bit of fun Robert prints me off a keep sake front cover of Bird Watch to mark my seeing my 300 life birds. I know it is way down the league of the big boys, but I have only been into birding over the last few years, so not to bad an effort.
 This hobby has taken me & the boys to some really lovely places all over England, also a couple of visits to the highlands of Scotland where I probably would not have gone to if it was not for the birding hobby,many trips to Wales that is always a pleasure & a highlight of the birding year for me.
We made just one trip to the Isle of Wight as well to see the Wilsons Phalarope, that was my first time there & I enjoyed it so much that I took Jean back there for a holiday later on in the year.
Brian has driven me & Jimmy to most of these places & it's thanks to them for getting me into bird watching, I must say it fills a big hole when you reach retirement age.
I must say the hobby also lets me meet some really nice people along the way, so now I am looking forward to the new year when we start a year count all over again & maybe a few more life ticks will be seen as well.
To celebrate my 72 years of life the boys bring me the elixir of life to keep me going for a bit longer.

The name sticks, but not true, Jimmy gave me this name.

The boxed one Brian's reminder of our Scotland trips.

Back to Southend & Wallasea.

With Jimmy on board this week we go back to the Essex coast as we had such a good morning there last week. First stop is Wallasea.
We arrive at first light & it's not to long before we see our first bird, it's a Marsh Harrier & very soon joined by a female Hen Harrier.
As we watch three Peregrines hunt chasing a large flock of Lapwings, always a great sight to see, but I must say I was glad that they missed the target.
After three hours spent watching the birds here it's time to head to Westcliff beach for some more photos of Sanderling & Turnstone.
In amongst all the Gulls are Common ,Black-headed,  Herring, & the odd Mediterranean Gull.

Once again a very pleasant morning spent with the boys doing what we all love doing.

Young Med Gull

Black-headed Gull