Tarty needs...

Never mind all that best patch find stuff...patch listing is all about the bread and butter, so whats the commonest stuff you've never seen on your patch? I've had 187 species at girdle ness, my patch, including a few goodies such as brunnichs guillemot, white billed diver, and a good assortment of decent passerines. However, during the 5 years I've been covering the patch properly (and a further ten years with less frequent visits beforehand) I've never had pochard or treecreeper! 

I have single records of coot, moorhen, and very few records of pheasant, collared dove, and coal tit. 

But that's the beauty of patching. I wouldn't bat an eyelid if I saw any of the above on my way down the shops (with the exception of pochard perhaps!) but finding one of these common rarities gives me a genuine thrill, more so than finding a regular 'rare' bird like, for example a yellow-browed warbler. I recall a few springs ago, I came across a stunning, singing male bluethroat early one may morning. Very nice indeed - but when the first ever stock dove for the patch flew past 5 minutes later I leapt up and did a genuine, not ironic air grab...

I guess it's a bit strange that it means that much to me, but when you've invested a great deal of time in a place the rewards are all the more enjoyable. Perhaps even more pertinent is that the expected rewards give more of a thrill than the unexpected ones. Well, they do for me, anyway!

So if you've taken up this patch listing as an excuse to get out into the field and find more rares, all the very best to you - but don't forget the missing common birds. You'll get your pochard one day, and you'll be on cloud 9 when you do...