2,228 days

After 2,228 days of patch birding at Longhaven ... GREENFINCH!!!

Happy Days

Bushveld

January... Dull

Thankfully January is over and done with for another year.  A few visits onto the Longhaven patch produced the usual winter fare.  Best birds of the month were collared dove (annual but scarce) and barn owl, which was enticed into a net one dark night and ringed as was short-eared owl.

The total so far is a modest 37 species (32.86%).

Still, the joys of February to look forward to now!

Happy Days

Bushveld.

Confused of Boghall

We were delighted to encounter a singing redwing on Sunday. Yes, in a voice far sweeter than ours this thrush did a great job in brightening up a driech day. Top work redwing - my first nomination for the Top Find award.

Other stuff brings us to 48, or 61.53%. Closing on Tintin again.

Take that Tintin

With reed bunting, tawny owl (oh yes, take that Seppy) and a nuthatch (last weekend while repairing a fence), together with padders, we are now back in third place. Who will win in this battle of the Lothian patches?

Roaring into third place

A typically undramatic start to 2020 has pushed Philpstoun up to third in the table (albeit several players yet to post scores). With 50% of last two years total (getting more legitimate!) seen already in 10 days this means that the excitement of adding ticks is already on the wane. Only 355 more days to see another 42 species and I'll be on 100%.  To add to future tedium I've already had two of the best birds I ever see here, waxwing and nuthatch.

New is the new old!

Happy New Year... same old humdrum.

After a dismal finish at the arse end of the leaderboard in 2019, a flurry of usual suspects in the first week of 2020 (including Jay, which is nice) sees The Mall roaring back to an inevitably temporary sojourn at the top of the table.

The second week is turning out to be predictably shit, on patch at least. Finished 2019 on a paltry 78 species, or just 89.31% -- ooooooof! On the plus side that means I'm chasing a target of 84 species this year, and picking up c.1.2% per species in real money.

Off patch, twitching a Brown Shrike in North Cork with Seppy on two successive days this week (dipped on the first attempt -- NAILED it on the second) was a welcome little January boost. Of course that's a huge chunk of 2020 birding brownie-point credits cashed in early -- but who gives a f**k... it was a Brown Shrike!

New Year, new reality

The stark reality of 2020 is we are chasing 78 species from a small patch of farmland and moorland in Midlothian. Its going to be a tough task, but the last year in which the monster year of 2017 will haunt us. Woodcock in the dying days of 2019 brought our total to 76 species, or 97.85%.  Woodcock has fallen already in 2020, thanks to a nighttime wander a few days ago. Snow Bunting on 2nd January was a good bird for our patch, and perhaps the only bird that will be of interest to other birders this year. All this with other stuff brings us to 34 species, or 43.59%.
It'll be a long year.