Start fast... stall early

With the Mallard in the bag, New Years Day turned out to be less of a wash out than Met Error predicted, so a wee sojourn down to the patch was #ON to get the 2025 year list off to a flying start.

First bird on the list was Jackdaw, followed by Mute Swan... predictable gank mostly saw me hit the 40 species mark before leaving the lake. Key newsworthy points here were that the resident Whopper Schwan has once again picked up a winter buddy, there are now two (count 'em) Coots on the lake, and the December Lesser Scaup has decided to stick around for the New Year... which was good of it, in all fairness.

Things were about to get better though. With the tide well out, next stop was the gull roost at Blind Harbour, where I quickly banged in the usual suspects on the gull front. I scanned the larger gulls for potential yellow-legged or maybe a ring-billed, but no joy on that front. Then, on a whim, I had a look through the smaller gulls, naturally expecting them all to be black-headed.

My bins settled on a first winter bird, sittng on the gravel, its head tucked unhelpfully under its wing. It was noticeably smaller than the birds around it, and it just "felt" different. I got the scope out for a closer look. It helpfully stood up and had a look around. Pink legs, black bill. Boom! 1st winter Bonaparte's Gull in the bag. A full-fat Irish tick, no less!

Boni's in the bag!

When I say "in the bag" of course, I still needed to convince the self-appointed adjudicator of proceedings that I had, in fact, seen one. So I contacted Seppy -- who after the anticipated incredulous "What the f**k are you doing looking at gulls" rant turned up some 20 minutes later to validate the bird. 

By which time it had flown off, obviously. 

Luckily, as he was about to give up and dis the claim, a small gull flew in and landed right in front of him -- pink legs, black bill, distinctive wing pattern. Verified!

And a contender for (New) Ol' Snowy chalked up on the first day of the year. Happy daze!

With three more species added yesterday -- in the shape of Dunlin, Gannet and Chough --  (it's already hard work... *sigh*) that leaves me on 56 species or 43.19% for the year. A non-too-shabby start, all things considered. Not much left to get now until things start warming up though.

Ah well....

Reg wins (New) Old snowy

 As the dust settles on a poor year, and as the golden 🦆heads to Basil (well done), we must consider where (new) ol’ snowy heads. As votes are frequently fiddled, it falls on us to pass judgement and well let’s face it, there is only one place that it can go, and that is Reg for his bufflehead. Who wouldn’t want to find that on their patch? So well done Reg.

A bufflehead, er last March

In a pretty bumper year for good patch finds, let’s give an honourable mention to red-rumped swallows at Squince and South Don, and gull-billed tern and dusky warbler at Galley Head, plus Basil's late December female lesser scaup at Squince. All of them are worthy contenders but in the end could not compete.

So now Basil Shakey needs to carefully pack up (New) Old Snowy and send it, yes actually send it, to Reg, so that he can keep it for the next 15 years. And Bushveld needs to carefully pack up the Golden Mallard (worth at least £100 on ebay), and send it to Basil, so that he can send it to Reg at the end of 2025 so that he can keep it for the next 15 years.

All to play for!

bring it on....

 I managed to make my way through the snow and ice for my first foray onto the patch in 2025.  It wasn't exactly happening so to speak, but there were some birds, indeed a whole 24 species. Making for a solid start to the year with neither fieldfare (at 73%) nor little grebe (at 27%) being 100% ers, so almost bonus birds, but not quite.

19.00% of the way there....

Happy days

Bushveld

Good bye 2024

Well, there we go, the chief has put the final scores on the doors for 2024 and I for one won't be sad to see that door closing.  

Having no new species to add since November my tally for 2024 finished on, an almost respectable, 122 species.  But it was hard graft with few bonus birds.  The highlight of the year and the only full fat patch tick was an avocet gracing the Notsogreatpool on 25 June.  A good bird for up here (akin to finding a black-winged stilt in Kent) but it was only an avocet .  A scattering of other scarce birds (recorded <10% of the years) included osprey, green sand, glaucous gull, little auk and wood warbler; all nice to have.  But with few others, it wasn't going to be a great year and absolutely nothing to threaten getting Ol' Snowy.

But turning the page and looking forward to starting again.

Having lost the rather low score from 2021 from the three year average, my target for 2025 increases alarming by another five species to 126.33; a total I have only ever achieved once.  So there will be no time for any slacking this year.

Well done to Squince (supported by Seppy) on winning the Mallard, which will be winging its way to you shortly. But who's getting Ol' Snowy for the best find, I know which gets my vote... quack quack.

Good luck every one

Bushveld

Limp Faulty wins the Golden Mallard Shocker

 Yes indeedy, despite suffering restricted movements for the final three months of the year, Basil Faulty did just enough to grind out the win for the 2024 Golden Mallard trophy. This is his second overall victory, but the first win at his current patch of Squince. 

Perhaps more interestingly, Seppy managed to squeeze out another second place, and is surely becoming the competition's Mr Consistent, while new-returnee Reg Hollis was no doubt delighted with his third place on the podium.

For posterity, here is the final league table for 2024:

Some scores, yesterday

And so it begins all over again for another year. For many competitors, it was a poor year overall (looking at you, Shakey!), but the regular scrutineers will be out in force to ensure that every competitor is giving it #110% all year for 2025, with zero tolerance for coasting.

More updates as they happen. Or as soon as Basil gets off the jax his laurels and writes up the story of today's bonaparte's gull....