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| Goshawk (self-found) |
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| Glossy Ibis (lifer) |
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| Red Backed Shrike (self-found) |
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| Yellow Wagtail (self-found) |
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| White Billed Diver (self-found/lifer) |
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| King Eider (Elvis) |
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| Roseate Tern (lifer) |
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| Blue Winged Teal (lifer) |
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| Tawny Owl (self-found) |
Well, the birding, (and the blogging after this post), is over for the year (Blackbirds, Feral Pigeons and a few Gulls excepted - the likeliest birds seen to/from/at work tomorrow). It has been a strange sort of year on the birding front with some highlights including a handful of lifers (see above) and what feels like plenty of low-lights (various species missed completely despite repeated attempts, and birding days missed through illness). My year-list spluttered out sometime in October with only 186 species seen, down 12 on the previous year.
Only four lifers were seen during 2014 - Glossy Ibis ( a long-staying bird around Loch Leven, visited twice), Blue Winged Teal (rather poor views at Loch of Strathbeg on a day which also gave me Little Gull, Little Tern and photos of Elvis the King Eider drake on the Ythan), Roseate Tern (surprisingly easy to spot among the Commons and Arctics even against the sun which hopefully bodes well for finding one of my own in future) and White Billed Diver (which I thought was a Great Northern Diver and which opinion is still divided on, though the expert opinion of Killian Mullarney says WBD and that will do for me, though it may still be rejected by SBRC when I finally get round to submitting the description and photos).
Other highlights included great photo opportunities with Dave the City Quay Red Throated Diver, small waders on the beach at Westhaven including a very curious Ringed Plover who got too close for the zoom lens at one point and the self-found Tawny Owl at Kilminning. Also the rather hurried views of Yellow Wagtail at Easthaven and Red Backed Shrike near Crail while I waited/hurried for a bus. The long-staying Iceland Gull at Swannie Ponds (and the rather less co-operative Mediterranean Gull) showed that it wasn't always necessary to travel far to see good birds too.
I always enjoy getting out and about and I'd like to thank all of those who have driven me places to see birds - in no particular order - Steph, Gus, Jacqui, Rhona, Nat, Joan, Willie & Anne, Wendy C, George, Richard & Douglas, Steve, Bob, Jon and John (hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone). I've also enjoyed leading a few bird walks at Riverside Nature Park and even surprised myself by adding five new species to my yearlist while leading one in early May (Whimbrel, Swift, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat). I managed to avoid the early morning start for the Dawn Chorus walk this year.
On the subject of the park, probably my most enjoyable day's birding of the year (from plenty contenders for that particular title) was on 31st August when the birding gods really smiled on me with 40 bird species seen by 10am. I tried to get to 50 species and succeeded. Then with only a few more species to find to equal the previous best day species-wise (53) I decided I might as well keep going and it didn't take too long to reach that target and then surpass it. By the time I had finished birding around the park I hadn't just passed the previous best by 1 or 2 species but by a totally unexpected NINE further species including a Fulmar. Looking back at the list there were a few possibilities that were missed suggesting that a higher total yet is potentially possible. Still 62 species at such a small urban site in just one day will take a bit of beating.....
I also surprised myself by managing to keep this blog going, although not always as quickly as I would have liked. My chosen 'style' of blog - telling the story of the whole day with all the species seen at all the stops, has meant hours of work for every entry, in addition to the editing of the photos taken and used in the blog, often different ones from those I upload on Flickr (and Facebook). I think the longest post was just under 4000 words and took two nights to type up. Still as long as someone, somewhere is reading it, and hopefully enjoying it then all that hard work is worthwhile. I have around 6150+ views for my 114 posts this year giving an average of around 54 views per post, though the more viewed posts are in the minority but push the average up a lot. Most get between 15 and 30 or so views. It would be nice to get more, so feel free to share the blogs via Facebook etc. Please.
As always I've probably spent rather a lot on books this year and there have been some really good ones amongst them. The Helm guide to Bird Identification is probably my favourite purchase of the year, with the Petersen guide to Seawatching not far behind (despite being an American focused book). The HBW Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World Volume 1 was a monster of a book (with price to match!) but it was great to get so much info in between 2 rather large covers and I'm looking forward to the Passerines volume even more when it is published in 2016.
Two other products which have been much used this year were apps for the iphone. The much anticipated Collins Bird Guide app finally arrived and although it lacked the calls of some species it was still brilliant to have it to hand while out and about if I needed to be able to check something, although the opportunities to do so have been a bit limited.
The other even more used, and my most used app in general, is the new version of Bird Journal. The previous version was a paid for app (around £7) and was easily worth every penny. However, the latest version is free and perfectly usable despite lacking some additional features (paid for extras are £35 per year). The phone app syncs with the PC version - also free, of the software meaning you can access your information at home, or while out and about.
The app itself is a listing app with a very easy to use and fairly intuitive method of entering data. It also logs location and time (which has come in very handy for compiling this blog this year). It has completely replaced a notebook in my pocket for birding and I'm considering paying the extra so I can record butterflies, dragonflies and mammals etc in the same way as well as being able to search through my historical records (over 800 separate lists uploaded so far with less than a 100 still to upload). I highly recommend it.
So, what will 2015 bring? I'm thinking of placing less emphasis on a year-list though I will still record how many species I see. I should hopefully reach 250 'official' species for Scotland (I'm on 251 by my 'rules'). I have agreed to lead at least four more guided walks at the Nature Park so hopefully as previously these will be well attended. I enjoy getting out and about and finding birds for others and am likely to do a bit more of that this year as well as seeing what I can find for myself (keeping a separate "self-found" list is a possibility). I'm also thinking about doing a few more 'big days' at various places/times of the year, to see just what is possible in a limited time frame. Anybody that fancies joining me for any of these, or to go birding in general, feel free to get in touch.
So that was 2014......
2015 starts in a little over 24 hours from now. I bet my first bird of the new year is a Herring Gull........
Happy Birding!