My Bird List 2022

 Here's a list of all the birds I've seen this year. I did one last year, so I've decided to do one for 2022 as well. Bucket list birds (birds that I'm trying to photograph as part of my challenge) will be marked as (BL). Those on my bucket list that I've seen but failed to photograph will be marked as (X). Other highlights will be marked as (H). All birds that I've only seen from Spain in May are marked as (ES).

1. Mute Swan
2. Bewick's Swan
3. Whooper Swan
4. Canada Goose
5. Brent Goose
6. Red-breasted Goose (BL)
7. Barnacle Goose
8. Greylag Goose
9. Russian White-fronted Goose
10. Pink-footed Goose
11. Shelduck
12. Egyptian Goose
13. Wigeon
14. Mallard
15. Shoveler
16. Gadwall
17. Pintail
18. Teal
19. Garganey
20. Goosander
21. Mandarin Duck
22. Pochard
23. Red-crested Pochard (H)
24. Tufted Duck
25. Scaup
26. Goldeneye
27. Eider
28. Common Scoter (H)
29. Shag (H)
30. Cormorant
31. Red-throated Diver
32. Great Northern Diver (H)
33. Great Crested Grebe
34. Little Grebe
35. Gannet
36. Little Gull
37. Black-headed Gull
38. Mediterranean Gull
39. Common Gull
40. Herring Gull
41. Lesser Black-backed Gull
42. Great Black-backed Gull
43. Iceland Gull (BL)
44. Common Tern
45. Sandwich Tern
46. Little Tern
47. Guillemot
48. Razorbill
49. Oystercatcher
50. Turnstone
51. Avocet
52. Black-winged Stilt (H)
53. Little Ringed Plover
54. Ringed Plover
55. Lapwing
56. Dotterel (BL)
57. Grey Plover
58. Golden Plover
59. Sanderling
60. Knot
61. Dunlin
62. Little Stint
63. Temminck's Stint (BL)
64. Ruff
65. Redshank
66. Greenshank
67. Spotted Redshank
68. Wood Sandpiper (H)
69. Common Sandpiper
70. Green Sandpiper
71. Curlew Sandpiper
72. Purple Sandpiper (H)
73. Black-tailed Godwit
74. Bar-tailed Godwit
75. Long-billed Dowitcher (BL)
76. Curlew
77. Snipe
78. Jack Snipe (H)
79. Grey Heron
80. Bittern
81. Little Egret
82. Great White Egret
83. Cattle Egret (H)
84. Glossy Ibis (H)
85. Crane (H)
86. Spoonbill
87. Moorhen
88. Coot
89. Water Rail
90. Red-legged Partridge
91. Grey Partridge (H)
92. Pheasant
93. Rock Dove/Feral Pigeon
94. Woodpigeon
95. Stock Dove
96. Collared Dove
97. Tawny Owl
98. Little Owl (H)
99. Barn Owl (H)
100. Nightjar (H)
101. Osprey (H)
102. Buzzard
103. Red Kite
104. Marsh Harrier
105. Hen Harrier (X)
106. Sparrowhawk
107. Kestrel
108. Hobby
109. Peregrine
110. Kingfisher
111. Bee-eater (H)
112. Cuckoo
113. Green Woodpecker
114. Great Spotted Woodpecker
115. Wryneck (H)
116. Swift
117. Swallow
118. House Martin
119. Sand Martin
120. Skylark
121. Meadow Pipit
122. Rock Pipit
123. Pied Wagtail
124. Grey Wagtail
125. Yellow Wagtail
126. Dunnock
127. Wren
128. Starling
129. Ring Ouzel (BL)
130. Blackbird
131. Song Thrush
132. Mistle Thrush
133. Fieldfare
134. Redwing
135. Robin
136. Stonechat
137. Whinchat
138. Black Redstart (H)
139. Wheatear
140. Cetti's Warbler
141. Sedge Warbler
142. Reed Warbler
143. Grasshopper Warbler
144. Blackcap
145. Garden Warbler
146. Whitethroat
147. Lesser Whitethroat (X)
148. Chiffchaff
149. Willow Warbler
150. Dusky Warbler (X)
151. Goldcrest
152. Spotted Flycatcher
153. Bearded Tit
154. Long-tailed Tit
155. Blue Tit
156. Great Tit
157. Coal Tit
158. Marsh Tit
159. Nuthatch
160. Treecreeper
161. Jackdaw
162. Carrion Crow
163. Raven (BL)
164. Rook
165. Jay
166. Magpie
167. House Sparrow
168. Bullfinch
169. Brambling
170. Chaffinch
171. Goldfinch
172. Greenfinch
173. Siskin
174. Linnet
175. Yellowhammer
176. Reed Bunting
177. Snow Bunting
178. White Stork (ES)
179. Purple Heron (ES)
180. Lammergeier (ES)
181. Egyptian Vulture (ES)
182. Griffon Vulture (ES)
183. Short-toed Eagle (ES)
184. Booted Eagle (ES)
185. Golden Eagle (ES)
186. Montagu's Harrier (ES)
187. Black Kite (ES) (BL)
188. Yellow-legged Gull (ES)
189. Turtle Dove (ES)
190. Alpine Swift (ES)
191. Hoopoe (ES)
192. Iberian Green Woodpecker (ES)
193. Red-backed Shrike (ES)
194. Woodchat Shrike (ES) (BL)
195. Golden Oriole (ES)
196. Red-billed Chough (ES)
197. Alpine Chough (ES)
198. Crested Tit (ES)
199. Woodlark (ES)
200. Crested Lark (ES)
201. Crag Martin (ES)
202. Western Bonelli's Warbler (ES) (BL)
203. Melodious Warbler (ES) (BL)
204. Western Orphean Warbler (ES)
205. Subalpine Warbler (ES) (BL)
206. Sardinian Warbler (ES) (BL)
207. Firecrest (ES) (BL)
208. Short-toed Treecreeper (ES)
209. Spotless Starling (ES)
210. Nightingale (ES) (BL)
211. Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush (ES) (BL)
212. Blue Rock Thrush (ES) (BL)
213. Rock Sparrow (ES) (BL)
214. Water Pipit (ES) (BL)
215. Crossbill (ES)
216. Citril Finch (ES) (BL)
217. Serin (ES) (BL)
218. Corn Bunting (ES)
219. Rock Bunting (ES) (BL)
220. Ciril Bunting (ES)

Ice & Rainbows

 Dec 5th Strumpshaw Fen & Buckenham Marshes

A very changeable day as it kept changing from rain, sunny spells and some very colourful rainbows, but mostly rain. I arrived early enough to see the starlings leave the Reception Hide, just a few thousand flying over my head without anything fancy. At Fen Hide I saw a little egret, Chinese water deer, marsh harriers and bearded tits. A quick walk to the river was cut short by another rain shower, but I did encounter a few fieldfares.

During my shift at Reception Hide, an otter made a couple of visits and we actually had ducks on the broad for the first time in what seems like some time ago (plenty of them, mostly mallards and some gadwall), marsh harriers, a sparrowhawk and a buzzard, 4 mute swans (a pair with a near-fully grown cygnet that had territorial disputes against the 4th) and a couple of brightly coloured rainbows arching across the reserve.

After my shift, I was invited to a walk at Buckenham as I missed out on the annual Christmas get-together due to work. I joined with my group of 3 others on what was an afternoon of mixed fortune. We enjoyed views of many wigeon, lapwings, several Chinese water deer, marsh harriers, a single pink-footed goose, greylags, Canada geese, some barnacle geese, 4 white pheasants and my final new addition to my bird list, white-fronted geese. However, the weather was awful. It kept raining on and off, but the worst of it happened as we decided to head back to our cars. We were all soaked to the bone!

Little Egret, Rainbow,
Wigeon (Dec 5th), Icy Scene,
Frozen Rosehips & Water Rail (Dec 12th)

Dec 12th Strumpshaw Fen

The temperature dropped below zero and to say it wasn't a bit cold was a bit of an understatement. I brought my hiking stick to help navigate through the slipperiest of paths as I made my journey to Strumpshaw on foot. The reserve itself was mostly frozen over and very quiet. Before my shift started, my morning walk produced fieldfares, bullfinches, herons, marsh harriers, 3 swans on ice and a Chinese water deer.

From Reception Hide, the broad was just ice and nothing much on it. At least there was a large flock of bearded tits (about 10+) feeding on reed heads at the reedy islands and a water rail showing well close to the hide to give me something to look at.

Dec 19th Strumpshaw Fen

It was a much warmer day, but the ice still remained on the broad outside the Reception Hide, though it was hard to notice unless you looked closely enough. There wasn't too much about either. Two great white egrets, marsh harriers, 3 mute swans, herons, buzzards, the odd bearded tit and, on the feeders, a great spotted woodpecker.

This was to be my last outing of the year as I spent Christmas with my family, Strumpshaw was closed on Boxing Day and work took up my week days. It was a year that had started well, but kind of slowed towards the end of it. I've seen plenty of great birds, especially when I went to Spain in May. If you want to see my full bird list of the year, I will post it in full later. As for next year, who knows. I may have a challenge in mind. However, I still haven't planned it out fully yet, so watch this space. For now, I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you all a happy new year. Here's to 2023!

8 Years On

 It has been 8 years since I started this blog. It has been one of those years where it has been a mixed bag. Half the year, I've been out and about, seeing some incredible birds, accumulating a good sized list. I even been to the Spanish Pyrenees on quite the adventure. However, the second half of the year, I've been stuck, unable to travel that often and the new bird species for my list petered out. 

Despite that, I did add some amazing birds, some I've never seen before. So, to celebrate my 8th year, I thought I look back at my top 10 highlights so far. Counting down from number 10, here are my favourite new species that I've seen in 2022...

10. Lammegeier - Yes, I know. This should be number one. However, because I didn't get a decent photo and the views were so fleeting, I just can't put it any higher than 10. This is a large and impressive bird of prey also known as a bearded vulture and eats bones by carrying them to the air and dropping them onto the rocks below to eat the marrow inside. It is an endangered species that was very high on my list when I went to the Spanish Pyrenees. On day 3 of the trip, I finally got to see one fly over us while we were at the pretty mountain town of Anso, having a drinks break sitting outside a café. It was such a fleeting glimpse and was so unexpecting, that I wasn't able to pick up my camera quick enough. I then had to use the toilet inside the café. In that time, it appeared again. I couldn't believe it! We did see a couple of others, but they were much further away. The views weren't as good as that first encounter.

9. Long-billed dowitcher -  This is another that I saw, but couldn't get a decent photo. It was a bit of a wild goose chase to find as I didn't know where it was. After a lot of walking back and forth and searching between Cley and Salthouse, I eventually found it. The light wasn't the best and the bird was fairly distant, but I did have a good look at it. This American wader was more or less like a dark snipe to me, but roughly the size between a snipe and a godwit. It was rewarding after the day I had, however, I really wish I had a better photo of it.

8. Great northern diver - Sea watching is one of my weakest side when it comes to birding. Everything is distant and unable to fully identify things well enough without an expert there to confirm what I'm seeing. Unfortunately, no one was around the day I decided to do a spot of sea watching at Sheringham in November. However, I did manage to find a bird that sat on the sea long enough for me to decide on its identity. In the end, I decided that it was a great northern diver. It looked big enough even from the distance I was seeing it. I've never seen one before and I was confident that it was one. Sadly, I have no photo for my collection, but it was still great to finally see one at long last.

7. Red-breasted goose - In March, I managed to see my first red-fronted goose out in the wild. Of course, it could have been just an escapee, but as far as I know, it was a wild one. I've seen plenty of captive individuals of this colourful species, but this was the first time I've seen one mingling with a flock of wild brent geese at Cley. 

6. Temminck's stint - Not the most attractive of my highlights as it was just a non-descript, tiny brown wader. But it was something I never had seen before and despite its size, it was actually a very charming bird and full of character. I watched it move along the edge of the pools in front of the Parminder Hide at Titchwell, swaying its head from side to side.

5. Dusky warbler - This one gave me and my friend, Trish, on a bit of a run around. We were at Stiffkey, walking up and down this ditch by the main path and I heard a strange 'tssk' call and caught a glimpse of it. We found a group of birders in the wrong spot and we took them to the area and we kept getting glimpses as well as hearing the call occasionally. At one point, it was right in front of me for a brief second. I couldn't get a photo, it was just too quick, but it was a fun experience all the same.

4. Sardinian warbler - This has to be the bird that has provided me with my favourite photo that I took this year. While I was at the Pinnacles of Riglas, these charming little warblers were everywhere. However, they were tricky to photograph. They kept moving out of shot and it took several attempts until I got what I wanted. 

3. Nightingale - Though I have glimpsed one a long time ago and have heard them a few times, I've never had a decent view of one. While out in Spain, I made it my mission to find and photograph one. I didn't need to go far from where I was staying as one was singing from outside my room's window. It took until my 3rd day to actually get what I wanted. I finally got my photo of one of Europe's best songsters. This was a day after losing my phone up a mountain and I was feeling rather down because of it. It was an emotional moment that lifted my mood and left me in tears.

2. Blue rock thrush & Rufous-tailed rock thrush - Taking joint 2nd place, the blue rock thrush was probably the best bird I saw while I was in Spain. We found it sitting on a wall of a dam with a bill full of worms. An absolute stunner! Bright blue! A couple of days later, I also managed to spot a rufous-tailed rock thrush poking behind a rock. Though not quite as stunning as the blue rock thrush, I'm putting it as joint 2nd because I was the one who spotted it and it was quite a hidden and even my group leaders couldn't believe how I even found it.

1. Bee-eater - For the first time, I got to see a colony of bee-eaters in the UK. I did see one in the past in Spain and I saw a colony by a river in the Pyrenees in May as well, but this was the first time they were breeding in Norfolk. This made them very special and were very successful. These rainbow birds at Trimingham provided me with some of the best views I've ever had. They were magical! I watched them catch bees and hit them against a wire to remove the sting. A bird well deserving of No.1 spot!