I haven't posted anything on this blog since 2018. At the beginning of 2020 I planned to publish a review of the year for 2019 (covering all taxa, not just birds) but I didn't quite finish it before the 2020 season got busy, so in the end I decided to combine the two years.
I've been focusing much more on insects and other taxa than in the past, and my birding activity has been more limited as a consequence. But just as big an impact on the variety of birds seen, if not the amount of time spent looking, is the fact that I've mostly stayed much more local - by choice in 2019 and more so by necesity during 2020 with its Covid-19 pandemic. Even so, it really struck me in preparing this review how few birds I saw in 2019 and 2020 - birds that normally I would see on multiple occasions during a year I hardly saw at all, or in some cases didn't see at all.
For me staying local means North Elmham and as much as I enjoy walking round my local patch (the Cathedral Meadows), it really isn't a great location for birding when compared to many coastal locations or even a lot of inland sites, particularly those with more varied habitat. I have a view over the Wensum Valley and in the winter when the leaves are off the trees if I stand in just the right place I can just see a little bit of the park lake, but my views of freshwater are mainly restricted to a small dyke that runs alongside the edge of the patch or occasional floodwaters in the surrounding land.
That said I did manage to pick up a few decent local birds, especially in the second half of 2020. These included Quail in July 2019, Wryneck in September 2020, Jack Snipe in October 2020 and Great White Egret and Hen Harrier in November 2020. Although arguably not countable, a rehabilitated White Stork was another notable patch bird in spring 2020. Surely the most extraordinary local sighting was another bird that benefited from human assistance (if indirectly), the Lammergeier which I saw from Billingford and then nipped back home just in time to glimpse it from my study window. I won't go into details, but a local find of Long-eared Owl was also a very unexpected surprise.
I did twitch a few birds in Norfolk before the pandemic including Semipalmated Sandpiper, Grey-bellied Brant and Eastern Yellow Wagtail (a bit of a James McCallum theme there - he found them all!), Isabelline Wheatear and most excitingly the Kalij Pheasant. Oh, and the Eagle Owl and, just across the Suffolk border, the fantastic Mallard x Rosybill hybrids. Twitching was largely out of the question during the pandemic but thankfully restrictions had been lifted sufficiently at the time of the Rufous Bush Robin to make it possible to see that safely, and I managed to see the Brown Shrike too.
Other visits to the coast were few and far between but I only managed a handful of mediocre days hunting migrants or seawatching.
My first trip to Mull in June 2019 was great - the weather was amazing and there was plenty to look at. Of the birds, the White-tailed Eagles were maybe top of the list although I really enjoyed the boat trip to Staffa to see the Puffins.
I timed a long weekend to Barcelona in February 2020 just right as Covid-19 hit Spain in a big way a week or two later and I wouldn't have been able to travel there then. The clear highlight here was my first Wallcreeper. Iberian Green Woodpecker was also new for me here.
We were able to go to Cornwall in early October 2020 too, although it wasn't the best week for birding. Having missed it at Pendeen it was nice of the American Golden Plover to follow me to Porthgwarra, but the Red-eyed Vireo at Kenidjack refused to show its face.
Two visits to the Lake District in 2019 to see family produced a few more birds - either there or on the journeyes to and from - including Black Grouse and a Gadwall x Shoveler hybrid.
Follow the links below to view details and photos of each group of birds, or just go to the first and then use the "Next page" links at the bottom to move on through. Other non-avian parts of my review of the years will soon start being published on my Mothing Diary blog. After that I shall need to re-think my online presence - my main website www.gobirding.eu was suspended at the beginning of this year as a fall-out of Brexit - you have to be resident in the EU to retain registration of a .eu domain. As much as I wish I was still resident in the EU, our inevitable re-entry to the EU is sadly not yet on the horizon. The linked blogs remain live but as a platform Blogger is proving far from ideal and in any case the title of the blog linking to a now-defunct website no longer seems appropriate. So watch this space, but don't expect anything new very imminently.
I've been focusing much more on insects and other taxa than in the past, and my birding activity has been more limited as a consequence. But just as big an impact on the variety of birds seen, if not the amount of time spent looking, is the fact that I've mostly stayed much more local - by choice in 2019 and more so by necesity during 2020 with its Covid-19 pandemic. Even so, it really struck me in preparing this review how few birds I saw in 2019 and 2020 - birds that normally I would see on multiple occasions during a year I hardly saw at all, or in some cases didn't see at all.
For me staying local means North Elmham and as much as I enjoy walking round my local patch (the Cathedral Meadows), it really isn't a great location for birding when compared to many coastal locations or even a lot of inland sites, particularly those with more varied habitat. I have a view over the Wensum Valley and in the winter when the leaves are off the trees if I stand in just the right place I can just see a little bit of the park lake, but my views of freshwater are mainly restricted to a small dyke that runs alongside the edge of the patch or occasional floodwaters in the surrounding land.
That said I did manage to pick up a few decent local birds, especially in the second half of 2020. These included Quail in July 2019, Wryneck in September 2020, Jack Snipe in October 2020 and Great White Egret and Hen Harrier in November 2020. Although arguably not countable, a rehabilitated White Stork was another notable patch bird in spring 2020. Surely the most extraordinary local sighting was another bird that benefited from human assistance (if indirectly), the Lammergeier which I saw from Billingford and then nipped back home just in time to glimpse it from my study window. I won't go into details, but a local find of Long-eared Owl was also a very unexpected surprise.
I did twitch a few birds in Norfolk before the pandemic including Semipalmated Sandpiper, Grey-bellied Brant and Eastern Yellow Wagtail (a bit of a James McCallum theme there - he found them all!), Isabelline Wheatear and most excitingly the Kalij Pheasant. Oh, and the Eagle Owl and, just across the Suffolk border, the fantastic Mallard x Rosybill hybrids. Twitching was largely out of the question during the pandemic but thankfully restrictions had been lifted sufficiently at the time of the Rufous Bush Robin to make it possible to see that safely, and I managed to see the Brown Shrike too.
Other visits to the coast were few and far between but I only managed a handful of mediocre days hunting migrants or seawatching.
My first trip to Mull in June 2019 was great - the weather was amazing and there was plenty to look at. Of the birds, the White-tailed Eagles were maybe top of the list although I really enjoyed the boat trip to Staffa to see the Puffins.
I timed a long weekend to Barcelona in February 2020 just right as Covid-19 hit Spain in a big way a week or two later and I wouldn't have been able to travel there then. The clear highlight here was my first Wallcreeper. Iberian Green Woodpecker was also new for me here.
We were able to go to Cornwall in early October 2020 too, although it wasn't the best week for birding. Having missed it at Pendeen it was nice of the American Golden Plover to follow me to Porthgwarra, but the Red-eyed Vireo at Kenidjack refused to show its face.
Two visits to the Lake District in 2019 to see family produced a few more birds - either there or on the journeyes to and from - including Black Grouse and a Gadwall x Shoveler hybrid.
Follow the links below to view details and photos of each group of birds, or just go to the first and then use the "Next page" links at the bottom to move on through. Other non-avian parts of my review of the years will soon start being published on my Mothing Diary blog. After that I shall need to re-think my online presence - my main website www.gobirding.eu was suspended at the beginning of this year as a fall-out of Brexit - you have to be resident in the EU to retain registration of a .eu domain. As much as I wish I was still resident in the EU, our inevitable re-entry to the EU is sadly not yet on the horizon. The linked blogs remain live but as a platform Blogger is proving far from ideal and in any case the title of the blog linking to a now-defunct website no longer seems appropriate. So watch this space, but don't expect anything new very imminently.
Kalij Pheasant
Grey-bellied Brant
Mallard x Rosybill hybrid
Turtle Dove
American Golden Plover
Audouin's Gull
White Stork in North Elmham
Cattle Egret, Brancaster, 1st June 2019
Lammergeier - shortly before I saw it from my study window
Wryneck at the North Elmham Cathedral Meadows
Brown Shrike
Wallcreeper in Spain
Isabelline Wheatear
Eastern Yellow Wagtail
Serin
