A short review of 2017

Patchwork Challenge

I haven’t got the time (or really the inclination) to do a month-by-month review of my year on the patch; it was unspectacular, lacking a top-notch bird... In total, I recorded 140 species, amounting to 166 points – my second highest species total, but only my third highest points score. Of these, 21 were two-pointers, and one was a six-pointer (Cattle Egret). This compares with:

• 2016 – 153 species and 193 points (29 two-pointers, a three-pointer Temminck’s Stint, a four-pointer Glossy Ibis which I didn’t claim finders points for as it had been seen at Langford the evening before, and one six-pointer for a self-found Great White Egret).
• 2015 – 139 species and 157 points (18 two-pointers, and nothing higher)
• 2014 – 135 species and 162 points (14 two-pointers, a three-pointer GWE and a twelve-pointer self-found Glossy Ibis)
• 2013 – 136 species and 167 points (15 two-pointers, a six-pointer self-found Pec Sand, and a twelve-pointer self-found Pied Wheatear – crazy that this gets the same points as a Glossy Ibis...)

Highlights for this year included not one, but two Cattle Egrets, Spoonbill, and Hawfinch (all patch ticks), as well as other notable species like Slavonian and Black-necked Grebes and Eurasian White-front. Other potentially tricky or erratically occurring species which I scored included Smew, Scaup, Little Gull, Black Tern, Arctic Tern, Bar-wit, Raven, Redstart, Spotted Fly, Whinchat and Gropper. A bird I know I dipped was Great White Egret (the first when I was on a stag do in the spring, the second over two dates at the end of November according to the sightings book in the hide – these weren’t reported at the time). Other misses included Ruff and Tree Sparrow (seen in all four previous years). Add to them Bewick’s Swan, Med Gull, Merlin, Red Kite, Sanderling, Tawny Owl and Turnstone (seen in three out of five years). We'll see what 2018 brings...

The second of the patch Cattle Egrets

Self-finds

2017 was one of my better years for finding my own. As well as two patch Cattle Egrets (the first being something like the 6th or 7th for Notts, the second still less than double figure), I had a Red-rumped Swallow in Suffolk in April and a Red-footed Falcon in Cornwall in May. Two weeks on Unst with Paul Eele produced co-found Red-throated Pipit, 2 Hornemann’s Arctic Redpolls and 4 Parrot Crossbills. Finding the latter, a first for Unst, was probably my most memorable birding moment of the year!

Red-footed Falcon

Red-throated Pipit

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll

Parrot Crossbill

Twitching

I only added four species to my British list in 2017. One of these was the aforementioned Red-throated Pipit; the other three were the Pacific Diver in Northumberland in February, the Blue Rock Thrush in Gloucestershire in March (which I finally went to see for insurance purposes - which proved to be the correct decision), and the Elegant Tern in West Sussex in June. With the change to IOC taxonomy come 1st Jan 2018, I also gain a Bean Goose, but very frustratingly, lose a bona fide Fea's Petrel.  

Pacific Diver

Elegant Tern