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!