My Birding Year 2023 Part 1. January to March

 

This year like most others has had its ups and downs but overall it has been an enjoyable year even though my year total was 2 less than last year 163 to 165. If you have followed my blogs you will have read that the 3 Amigos are bird spotters and not twitchers. (twitchers chase rare birds all over the country) if anything rarer turns up in this area and its on a day when we go spotting, then we might try to see it but only if its in an area where we can spot other birds along with the bird we have traveled to see.

January.

The year started well with a pair of Blackcaps in the garden and the following day the 2^nd Mary and I managed a short trip to Newton St Loe here the less common included Teal, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck (f) and Treecreeper always a nice bird to get early in the year before the leaves appear on the trees. The first trip the 3 Amigos made was to Chew Valley Lake nothing terribly exciting but Goosander are always a nice find. A week later on the 10^th we visited Slimbridge which we knew would bump up our year numbers and with 18 year ticks it certainly did Bewick’s Swan, Water Rail, White Fronted Goose, Avocet and Siskin being some of the highlights. On the 17^th we went to Marshfield looking for Red Legged Partridge and Yellowhammer which we found but Corn Bunting eluded us. Tuesday 24^th we visited the Forest of Dean the main highlight were Hawfinches always a difficult bird to find Mandarin and Dipper are always nice to see. We had heard on the local grapevine that a bird called a Hume’s Warbler had been found at Compton Dando STW and being so close to home on Wednesday the 25^th the 3 of us decided to try for it and luck was on our side as we all had good views. It was a lifer for all of us.

Library Photo of the Hume's Warbler

Green Woodpecker and Chiffchaff were also seen and were year ticks. The 28^th I did my RSPB Garden Birdwatch (you have to count the number of different species seen in the garden in a selected hour.) I managed a poor 8 species as I would expect 10 to 12 most days. On the 30^th we visited Mary’s sister in Peasdown St John and while looking out of her kitchen window a Red Kite flew over.

The month ended with me having seen 89 species, 11 down on 2022.

February

In the 1^st was a return visit to Newton St Loe with just I single year tick, Long Tailed Tit, but a count of 150+ Rooks was a decent total. 14 Teal was more that a year ago. On Tuesday 2^nd we did a circular walk from Monkton Combe to Midford but nothing seen to get excited about and the same applied to a walk at Newton St Loe on Saturday the 11th. On Tuesday 14^th we went to Snuff Mills and Eastville Park the highlight being the years 1^st Greenfinch and on the pond in Eastville Park we counted 133 Black Headed Gulls.

Black Headed Gull - Eastville Park (Bath Birdwatcher)

On the 18^th it was the monthly RSPB field trip to Blashford Lakes where I had 5 year ticks, the highlights being a self-found Firecrest and Lesser Redpolls on the feeders plus Yellow Legged Gull on Ibsley Water. 

Firecrest - Blashford (courtesy of Tim Locke)

The last outing of the month was to Stanton Prior and Burnett no year ticks but 2 Red Kites were great to see as was a Brown Hare. Year total ended the month on 97.

March

The month started with 2 trips to Newton St Loe on the 1^st and 7^th with the only tick being a Grey Wagtail on the 7^th but both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers were nice. 

Cormorant - NSL (Bath Birdwatcher)

Green Woodpecker - NSL (Bath Birdwatcher)

Chew Valley Lake on the 14^th was next for the Amigo’s but disappointingly no year ticks and a Treecreeper the only highlight. But we returned 2 weeks later on the 28^th and had 6 year ticks, Smew, Osprey, Scaup, Sand Martin, Swallow and Little Gull. That increased my year list over the ton to 105.