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Wednesday 20 January 2016

A Bearded Conundrum......

Happy New Year all,

Looks like I qualified for this year's tournament by the skin o' me teeth.
Anyway, Bearded Tits-
As a regular visitor to Broom GPs, I fequently look for Bearded Tits in areas that shall not be named in this post.
The question is this-
Having found 2 Bearded Tits today, but not during a handful of recent visits either by myself or other regulars. Is there are chance these birds..............

(a) .........are resident and have evaded attempts to see them since 27th November last year?
(b) .........are different birds that have just found themselves here having dispersed from elsewhere?

Although I had fleeting glimpses of 2 birds together, I suspect there could be more as I could hear calling from different areas of the site at various times. So with that in mind-

(c) Can I have it?

M

Sunday 17 January 2016

Erm...start of the year then...

OK so its not the first of January, but here is the new blog for anyone who'd like to improve their birding in 2016.

I'm doing quite badly so far and about to go away for a couple of weeks but hey, lets see what happens in 2016!

Tuesday 5 January 2016

Notable hits and misses

What did you miss in 2015? For me, probably Tree Pipit, Scaup, Garganey and Pintail. Others too, but they are the most obvious.

On the flip-side, Little Stint and Little Tern were both county self-found ticks, and greatly enjoyed, so I mustn't grumble. The latter was even twitched by our CR, so I can't be accused of being a big stringy twat.

Good luck to all during 2016, and remember, it isn't the taking part that counts, it's the winning. Hang about...I've got that the wrong way up...

Neither José Mourinho nor Jeremy Clarkson will be available to present this year's trophy (sponsored by Armitage Shanks), as both are busy with their 'gardening', but I did get a text from Jeremy which read ''My congratulations to Andy...some say that he sleeps upside-down in an empty box of cornflakes at a lay-by on the A6, and that his dreams involve Scarlett Johansson and Scaup...all we know is, he's called The Reaper.''

If you didn't get that in-joke, please refer to last year's blog.

Atb,

D

Sunday 3 January 2016

End of the year results?

Results are in - probably.  Things are looking like Mr Grimsey is the winner (144) with great efforts to seek out lesser watched sites and filling in gaps by searching the hills - the sort of behaviour the SFYL challenge intended to encourage.  Praise as ever to Darren (142) who did virtually the same but on foot - amazing performance.  Equally impressive was Jim's identical 142.  Impressive as Jim is a self confessed beginner who hammered the Broom area and found loads - even getting to grips with gulls which many more seasoned birders (eh hem), try to ignore...

Martin and I scored 133, a total never troubling the medals.  I didn't even see a Pintail, let alone find one...

Matt and Roger clocked up excellent tallies considering they don't leave their patch much and some great finds in there, especially the Great Grey Shrike  we're all enjoying now.

Technical problems may have hampered Andy and Steve's spreadsheet action but thanks go to Andy for finding the popular Firecrest at Meadow Lane.

Shall we do it again?


Friday 1 January 2016

Cheers all

Well, that was interesting and also informative. I think I've learnt more about bird ID during this year than any other, but then again that's probably because I was actually bothered about what things were, rather than going away and wondering what that "funny wader" was I'd just seen.

Anyway, I took part in the 2015 SFYL purely out of interest to see how many different bird species I'd see when out and about with the dogs, although I suppose I did see a few extras during the peak migration periods when it was always worth a "quick look" at GLE. When I tell the Mrs that I'm going to Broom for a "quick look" she now knows to expect me back probably not until it gets dark.

All that's left is to say a big thank you to all of the other 2015 SFYL participants, and to the other regular Beds Birders, for your patience and good humour with a birding duffer, who will now go back to being a dog walker with a camera that notices birds.

All the best for 2016 and good birding.

Jim