Back to the blog posts now and I'll be continuing with the 30-minute-birding slot throughout this month - leads ( by coincidence ) nicely into the big garden birdwatch too over January 25th and 26th and promotes the whole thing about recording wildlife. But first a quick look back at 2013's birding year.
Personal highlights for me at Dove Stone included watching Common Redstarts and Ring Ouzel around Chew and an unexpected Common Tern over Yeoman Hey res. Birds I would like to have seen more of here ? Cuckoo, most definitely, and Kingfisher.
The Dove Stone 2013 Bird List made it up to 72. That said, there are a few omissions from, for example, birds that have been seen in previous years but not recorded this year; doesn't mean to say they weren't here, just that we didn't have sightings of these birds. The obvious one's for me are Spotted Flycatcher and Pied Flycatcher, the latter using nestboxes at Dove Stone in 2011 and 2012. We also have records from the last two years of a couple of other summer migrants at Dove Stone: Garden Warbler and Tree Pipit. These four would take our reserve list up to 76. We've also records from 2012 and 2011 of Osprey ( reserve list total 77 ) on passage, but no sightings from last year ? Whilst we're looking at raptors we can also add in Red Kite from 2013, Goshawk from 2012 and Rough-legged Buzzard in 2011 ( officially over the Isle of Sky road near Upperwood House but we'll claim that one ! ) bringing our reserve list total to 80. Other winter visitors and birds on passage missing from last year but recorded in previous years would be Fieldfare and Pink-Footed Goose, taking us up to 82.
So, now for more embarrassing omissions from our 2013 list, as follows ! I hear Tawny Owls ( 83 ) regularly at Dove Stone, but they didn't make it on to the list for last year, which tends to be biased towards seeing a bird as well as hearing it. Blackcaps ( 84 ) are mainly a summer visitor to the UK with some birds overwintering - mainly down south I believe. There would in all likelihood have been Blackcaps at Dove Stone last year. Other obvious omissions: Common Gull and Lesser Black Backed Gull, Collared Dove and House Martin bring our reserve total to 88. Final birds to add to our list for which we have records of in 2012, but not last year are Little Owl in the Charnel Clough area, Green Woodpecker in the lower areas beneath Alderman's Brow and alongside Yeoman Hey res and White Wagtail. Final Dove Stone Reserve Bird List then totals at 91.
So, that's the round-up from last year. It will be interesting to see what this year brings. More tomorrow with an update on 30-minute-birding at Binn Green and some recent sightings elsewhere around Dove Stone. I'll also be updating soon on how the WeBS survey is going too...