Birds of 2015

At the beginning of 2015 I set myself a target, to see 150 species of bird in 12 months. That's modest by the standard of many bird folk, but I wanted to be realistic. I had never seen that many before, and my personal circumstances (no car, limited budget, general lethargy) would make a very high goal impossible to attain. Thanks to some good luck (a surprising number of local fly-throughs), and generosity on the part of my main bird-seeking companion (who blogs here), I reached 150 within just a few months, so I set a further bonus goal of 175. It turned out to be a lot harder adding a few more species in the remaining time, and I didn't quite meet it - but 169 species is a total I can be satisfied with.

You can read the specifics in the month entries (one each for January-May, September and October, one for June-August, and November-December), so I'll just add here my top species for the year. I've chosen these on entirely subjective grounds - some because they were so special or striking, some because I'd been after them for years, some because they were photogenic. In no particular order...

Avocet
A species that was once rare, now it's quite common even near home, but I'd never managed to see. My first sighting of these was there, on the Ribble, but very distant - specks in the haze. Better was at Martin Mere, where they bravely chased off much larger swans from their chicks. Later I detoured to Leighton Moss's salt marsh hides, where good views of them (and their young) can be had.

Common scoter
A speciality of my home town, yet almost nobody would ever see them - they float in great rafts, thousands strong, just offshore, usually only visible in a telescope. But a male and a female separately found their way to the local nature reserve, a small body of freshwater a couple of miles from the coast. Later in the year, I added two more species to my list, velvet and surf scoters, but neither afforded quite such good views.

Wood warbler
Several warblers were on my hit list, and I was lucky enough to see them all. Garden warbler almost featured here, for giving unexpectedly good views by the standard of an otherwise elusive species, but the wood warblers are just that bit more flamboyant, and their song lit up the springtime woods for me.

Scaup
This handsome male duck made a local marine lake its home for many weeks, and grew quite tame. It ticks all the boxes - photogenic, laid-back, handsome, unexpected yet easy to find.

Red-throated diver
Like the scaup, and at the same location, a completely unexpected visitor, which really ought to have been out to sea. Beautiful views. Alas the bird was probably injured.



Gannet
This wins out for the combination of spectacle - a couple of hundred thousand birds, each with a wingspan of nearly six feet - and the ease with which good shots could be taken. The light on my boat trip to Bass Rock was perfect, and the sea not too choppy for photography even at relatively close range. An unforgettable experience - but I saw them a couple more times too, from the land further west along the Firth of Forth, and it was exhilarating each time. Their size, colouration, and behaviour is remarkable (though I never saw them dive), and I hope to see more of them in future.

Raven
A species I have been hoping to see for some time. Not rare, and quite widespread - but both my home patches are on the edge of their range, and they are rather spread out from what I gather. They had also been something of a bête noire of mine, as in my early days of birdwatching, I found them impossible to separate from carrion crows based on the photographs, descriptions, and audio recordings I studied - even though the common view is it's pretty straightforward.

As it turned out, I encountered them several times this year. A couple of distant birds on a Cumbrian hilltop could have been the first - but I found the photographs unconvincing. So it was in Bowland I can say I had my first sighting of a raven - high and distant, against a pale grey sky, as poor a view as you could hope for. Then in Silverdale, a pair feasting on a dead lamb - a good view, although still distant, but on the ground in good light. Best of all was the bird the flew over my parents' garden, the first one I identified by its call - which when it came to it, was absolutely unmistakable.

Ring-billed gull

It's hard for a gull to make my shortlist, but this North American bird was distinctive (by the standards of large white gulls), and almost tame. It's been hanging around Preston for months now, seemingly happy to live as an urban bird on the wrong side of the ocean.

Wryneck

A unique bird in this country, and one I would never have expected on my home patch. But one of these weird creatures stuck just down the coast for several days, and although it never came close, it did allow for better-than-record shots in the lovely autumn light. I found it much more exciting than the barred warblers that arrived alongside, in contrast to the crowds of other birdwatchers they attracted.

Short-eared owl
I've never done very well with birds of prey, including owls. I got my first shots of a wild tawny this year, but never caught up with the species I really wanted to see, little owls. However, a large influx of the wonderful, charismatic short-eared owl gave me the chance to get some great shots. Some have hung around at home for a couple of months, but my views have been at Musselburgh either side of the New Year, where between a couple and a dozen have wowed birdwatchers and locals all winter.

As for the rest, here's the master list of species I saw, in alphabetical order by common English name:

January-December 2015
169 species (36 lifers)
Arctic tern
Avocet
Bar-tailed godwit
Barn owl
Barnacle goose
Barred warbler
Black-headed gull
Black-tailed godwit
Blackbird
Blackcap
Bluetit
Brambling
Bullfinch
Buzzard
Canada goose
Carrion crow
Cetti's warbler
Chaffinch
Chiffchaff
Coal tit
Collared dove
Common gull
Common sandpiper
Common scoter
Common tern
Coot
Cormorant
Corn bunting
Cuckoo
Curlew
Curlew sandpiper
Dipper
Dunlin
Dunnock
Eider
Feral pigeon
Fieldfare
Firecrest
Fulmar
Gadwall
Gannet
Garden warbler
Garganey
Goldcrest
Golden plover
Goldeneye
Goldfinch
Goosander
Grasshopper warbler
Great black-backed gull
Great crested grebe
Great grey shrike
Great spotted woodpecker
Great tit
Green sandpiper
Green woodpecker (heard only)
Greenfinch
Greenshank
Grey heron
Grey plover
Grey wagtail
Greylag goose
Herring gull
House sparrow
Iceland gull
Jack snipe
Jackdaw
Jay
Kestrel
Kittiwake
Lapwing
Lesser black-backed gull
Lesser redpoll
Lesser whitethroat
Lesser yellowlegs
Linnet
Little egret
Little grebe
Little ringed plover
Long-eared owl
Long-tailed duck
Long-tailed tit
Magpie
Mallard
Mandarin
Marsh harrier
Marsh tit
Meadow pipit
Mediterranean gull
Merlin
Mistle thrush
Moorhen
Mute swan
Nuthatch
Oystercatcher
Peregrine
Pheasant
Pied flycatcher
Pied wagtail
Pied-billed grebe
Pink-footed goose
Pintail
Pochard
Purple sandpiper
Quail (heard only)
Raven
Red-legged partridge
Red-necked grebe
Red-throated diver
Redshank
Redstart
Reed bunting
Reed warbler
Ring-billed gull
Ringed plover
Robin
Rock pipit
Rook
Ruff
Sand martin
Sanderling
Sandwich tern
Scaup
Sedge warbler
Shelduck
Shorelark
Short-eared owl
Shoveler
Skylark
Slavonian grebe
Snipe
Song thrush
Sparrowhawk
Spotted flycatcher
Starling
Stock dove
Stonechat
Surf scoter
Swallow
Swift
Tawny owl
Teal
Temminck's stint
Tree sparrow
Treecreeper
Tufted duck
Turnstone
Twite
Velvet scoter
Water rail
Wheatear
Whimbrel
Whinchat
Whitethroat
Whooper swan
Wigeon
Willow warbler
Wood warbler
Woodcock
Woodpigeon
Wren
Wryneck
Yellow wagtail
Yellow-browed warbler
Yellow-legged gull
Yellowhammer