PWC 2015 Review - Hemsby, Ryan Irvine

January

January is normally a time to see all the common resident birds on the patch and hope that a couple decent seawatches can summon up a star bird such as the Red-necked Grebe and Black-throated Diver in 2014. This January the seawatching was relatively tame, a Shag on the 15^th probably the highlight with less than 5 records a year on average.

I didn’t have to wait long for my first patch tick of the year as I picked out 2 tundra Bean Geese amongst a flock of feeding Pink-footed Geese. Numbers fluctuated daily to a maximum of 15 birds on the 16^th and a couple European White-fronted Geese made an appearance on the 8^th. An added bonus to spending every morning searching through the goose flock was another patch tick on the 7^th, two Cranes flying past in the distance, a long overdue patch tick! It didn’t end there, on the 16^th a 1^st winter Yellow-legged Gull was roosting next to the flooded area of the field. Only my second ever on patch! The month ended with a ringtail Hen Harrier hunting over the Kings Loke area, again only my second patch record. That helped my get to 63 species, 80 points for the month equaling my best points tally for January.

February

February is normally a difficult month to add many new species so adding 16 species was pleasing. Seawatching in January may have been disappointing but in early February I added Puffin (4^th patch record), Little Gull and Great Northern Diver along with a few more common seabird species I missed in January. Highlight of the month was also my 3^rd patch tick of the year, a flock of 6 Bewick’s Swans flying overhead. 79 species, 103 points.

Unfortunately this little cracker was a few miles from the patch……

March

I always look forward to March as spring migrants slowly start to drip in. The first Chiffchaff of the year on the 9^th was the first spring migrant, the first of many I was hoping but it didn’t materialise this March as the only other migrant was a Black Redstart on the 20^th. A good passage of waders on the 21^st added Grey Plover, Knot, Ruff, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew and Woodcock, an unusual time of year for so many species to pass by. The month ended with my earliest ever Manx Shearwater, in fact the first one I’ve seen at Hemsby before June!  97 species, 123 points.

April

April started with a bang as a male Serin visited my garden on the 3^rd, patch tick no.4 of the year. I only had to wait 2 more days for my next patch tick as a Cetti’s Warbler started singing in a garden in the village. A truly unexpected patch tick due to lack of suitable breeding habitat. Common migrants slowly dripped through the patch throughout the month, one of the most enjoyable months of the year as the patch is filled with singing birds but frustratingly no other scarcities amongst them. 121 species, 159 points.

May

May has generally disappointed me since I’ve birded Hemsby, very few additions as all the common migrants pass through in April and a lack of any good scarcities. Fortunately this May bucked the trend to a certain extent. First up was another 6 pointer in the shape of a Rough-legged Buzzard (patch tick no.6) on the 4^th, floating over my head as I tried to photograph a Garden Warbler. A nice stroke of luck. The two Bar-headed Geese flying in off the sea on the 8^th unfortunately provided me with zero points! Sedge Warbler on the 10^th was the next good patch bird, a just about annual bird so always good to catch up with. My 2^nd ever patch Turtle Dove flew north on the 16^th and my first ever spring Hobby also flew through on the same day. 134 species, 178 points.

June

I like June on the patch but I’m not sure why, new species are at a premium and seawatching is incredibly dull. My only patch Red-backed Shrike was in June 2013 and I always feel given the right conditions that something can turn up. The 5^th June was such a day, light SE winds and sunny. As I sat in the office I felt it was a good day for a drift migrant. After work I visited the south end of the patch where there are paddocks and hedgerows hoping for a Hoopoe or shrike. Unfortunately the paddocks were devoid of life and the hedgerows were similarly quiet. I noticed a large flock of hirrundines mobbing something in the distance, soon realised it was a falcon. The sun caught the pale head, it looked very interesting! It landed on telegraph wires and I soon realised I was looking at a female Red-footed Falcon! A find tick, patch tick and beautiful bird! It was soon chased off by a Magpie, flew over the paddocks NW never to be seen again! The rest of the month was generally quiet, the first Crossbills of the year on the 14^th and then a Barn Owl (patch tick no.8) on a walk home from the pub on the 18^th. 139 species, 188 points.

July and August

July is normally a terrible month but August is normally a good seawatching month and migrants start returning but this year I would see neither as work and holidays kept me away from patch for all but four days, Black Tern and Green Sandpiper were two good patch birds on those days. 144 species, 194 points.

September

September is much like May at Hemsby, I expect a lot more than I ever find. An Ortolan Bunting aside in the year prior to PWC starting I haven’t found many good scarcities in September. Work and holidays again limited my time on patch but a Wryneck on the 9^th and my earliest Hemsby Yellow-browed Warbler (12^th) gave me some much need bonus points. Autumn was well in truly in full swing by the end of the month when Brambling and Great Spotted Woodpecker made it onto my list. 151 species, 213 points.

October

The make or break month. If I was to reach my comparative score of 251 points I needed a good October. As it happens I had possibly the best month I will ever have patch birding! It will take an incredible month to beat it anyway, 17 new species and a massive 61 points! It all started with a 2 pointer and my 9^th patch tick of the year. The local gulls were making an uncharacteristic amount of noise and as I looked up I noticed them mobbing an Osprey as it drifted south. A Rock Pipit on the 4^th was a good patch bird, only the 4^th record and all in October. Short-eared Owls started drifting in on the 6^th and by the end of the month I’d seen 15 on patch (+ 1 LEO). My 2^nd ever patch Treecreeper appeared in the Kings Loke on the 9^th (a third one recorded on the 18^th). A good seawatch on the 11^th saw my first patch Balearic Shearwater pass south, tracked down the coast by several seawatchers. A Jack Snipe flew up from my feet in the Kings Loke on the 13^th, only my 2^nd one on patch. All these birds were great patch birds but they don’t make an autumn a great one. The next five days changed that!

I left work early on the 14^th as the weather conditions were ideal for a fall of migrants. The Kings Loke was full of thrushes and as I checked a few hedgerows a Great Grey Shrike popped up on top of the hedge. Yet another patch tick and over the rest of October I saw 3 or 4 other GGS on patch. There had obviously been quite a fall that evening as I walked back to my house the road was littered with exhausted thrushes and Bramblings. A pre-work bash round the Kings Loke on the 16^th provided me with the next bonus point bird, my third patch Pallas’s Warbler in three years. An absolutely stunning bird, even in the rain.

The weekend of the 17^th and 18^th will go down as some of the best birding I have ever done. The 17^th was actually a pretty quiet day, a Redstart the only migrant of note. While checking the Kings Loke several times during the day I flushed a pipit several times, its call was interesting but inconclusive and it always flew away out of view. Frustrating but just one of those things, best let it go. At about 16:45 I was checking the dense scrub in the Kings Loke on last time when I slight movement caught my eye at the top of a bush at eye level. I quickly got my bins onto a greyish brown bird with bright orange flanks and a large beady eye. I only caught a few seconds of it before it dropped out of sight. I hadn’t seen the tail but it had to be a Red-flanked Bluetail. I managed to see it in the middle of the bush about 10 minutes late, pumping its tail but the light conditions were so dull that I still couldn’t pick out any blue in the tail. The next day I was out at first light with a friend and after 1.5 hours searching we found it again in the same bush, showed well for about 45 seconds and we saw the blue in the tail this time, although it wasn’t obvious. A dream find! During the 3 -4 hours after the sighting I nipped off for some food and as I walked back I flushed the pipit from the day before. This time it perched briefly and looked very well marked but it soon buggered off away over the trees again. After a good 2 -3 hour search and finally getting some good photos we were happy we had stumbled across an Olive-backed Pipit, less than 50m from the Red-flanked Bluetail!!! What a day! What a month! My comparative score well and truly smashed thanks to two birds! 168 species, 274 points.

November

Despite having a great autumn so far the seawatching had been pretty terrible all autumn so I was hoping for a few good seawatches in November. The first three weeks didn’t produce good seawatching conditions and additions were few and far between, a Merlin on the 7^th and a small group of Whooper Swans on the 8^th, both less than annual on patch. The Humpback Whale reappeared in front of my house for the 3^rd year running on the 9^th and was seen throughout most of the month thereafter.

Many people think of great seawatches containing thousands of shearwaters or hundreds of skuas and petrels but for my patch they can be as simple as a good passage of waders or wildfowl. The 21^st and 22^nd provided just that, northerly gales produced unprecedented numbers of wildfowl and to a lesser extent waders along with a few good scarcities. I seawatched for 9 hours straight on the 21^st, 5 year ticks and record counts galore later I was a very cold but happy patcher. All the year ticks were patch gold, 2^nd patch records of Pochard, Goosander, Leach’s Petrel and a 3^rd patch Avocet on the 21^st and on the 22^nd an Iceland Gull was a patch tick (14^th of the year!), 3^rd patch record of Purple Sandpiper and a record count of 14 Little Auk. On top of this there were patch record counts of Wigeon (1025), Teal (728), Pintail (162), Goldeneye (105), Shelduck (179), Red-breasted Merganser (26), Shoveler (38), Eider (113) and Dunlin (378). Epic patch birding! 176 species, 292 points.

December

Prior to PWC 2015 I had only ever added one species in December, a waxwing in 2014 so I wasn’t holding out for much and so it proved with only one addition but again another bit of patch gold, my 2^nd Red-necked Grebe for Hemsby on the 11^th.

This finished off a quite amazing year on patch, 2016 has a lot to do to keep up……

177 species

294 points

14 patch ticks -  Bean Goose, Crane, Bewick’s Swan, Serin, Rough-legged Buzzard, Cetti’s Warbler, Red-footed Falcon, Barn Owl, Osprey, Balearic Shearwater, Great Grey Shrike Red-flanked Bluetail, Olive-backed Pipit, Iceland Gull

1 x 15 pointer – Red-flanked Bluetail

1 x 12 pointer – Olive-backed Pipit

9 x 6 pointers – Crane, Serin, Rough-legged Buzzard, Red-footed Falcon, Wryneck, Yellow-browed Warbler, Great Grey Shrike, Pallas’s Warbler, Leach’s Petrel

0 Twitches

Patch Gold – Whooper Swan (4^th & 5^th patch records), White-fronted Goose (3^rd & 4^th), Pochard & Goosander (2^nd & 3^rd), Red-necked Grebe (2^nd), Hen Harrier (2^nd, 3^rd & 4^th), Avocet (3^rd), Purple Sandpiper (3^rd), Common Sandpiper (5^th), Green Sandpiper (4^th), Jack Snipe (2^nd), Puffin (4^th & 5^th), Yellow-legged Gull (2^nd & 3^rd), Turtle Dove (2^nd), Long-eared Owl (4^th & 5^th), Merlin (3^rd), Sedge Warbler (4^th & 5^th), Treecreeper (3^rd &a 4^th) and Rock Pipit (3^rd & 4^th).

Birdtrack records – 7508

Birdtrack complete lists – 237

PWC2015 Steven Ward - Hawes

Patchwork Challenge 2015 Review – Hawes; Steven Ward

January

Fortunately, and as per usual for the beginning of the year, the 1^st of January saw areas of floodwater adorning the floodplain around the River Ure. This helps draw in certain species which wouldn't normally be present on Patch without floods. Teal, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Kestrel, Redwing & Fieldfare were the modest opening day highlights. Biblical amounts of rain over the course of New Year's Day turned virtually the whole valley bottom into one giant lake for the next 24 hours.

On the 3^rd, Wigeon, Goosander, Tawny Owl & Grey Wagtail were added. My BirdTrack complete list had to be abandoned on this day however, as a mournful squealing sound on the river bank led to an Otter cub, no doubt separated from its family following the previous days' extensive flooding. Scooping the poor creature up, it ended up with the nearest RSPCA via my house and the local vet.

An unfortunate highlight perhaps.

The 4^th was a good day. Waking up to frosts and ice cover, I logged a Patch 2^nd Little Egret down by the river. The first 2 pointer of the year and a good record for the upland location. Hopefully given the freezing conditions, it had the sense to move on to warmer climes. Other goodies on the list were Pink-footed Goose, Sparrowhawk, Kingfisher, Goldcrest & Nuthatch.

Other good birds logged in the ensuing days were Dipper & Brambling on 5^th, Shoveler & Stock Dove on 6^th, and Little Grebe on 7^th. Kestrel first showed on 10^th.

What turned out to be my only Patch Peregrine of the year blasted low over the garden (tick) on 11^th, scattering the local corvids in all directions.

13^th brought a pair of Bullfinch to berries in a friend's garden. Scarce here, what must have been the same pair turned up in my garden a few days later, providing a welcome grden tick.

Buzzard & Snipe showed on 14^th, with Shelduck coming on 16^th.

The 17^th delighted with a completely unexpected “Top 3” moment. Walking the riverbank, I glanced to the left to see a gamebird flying quite high over Hawes town. Amazing! The distinctive flight of a female Black Grouse. Heavy snowfall had occurred the previous night, and this lone greyhen was probably forced off the nearby fells to forage elsewhere. Despite birds being present in the nearby hills, this was probably the most unexpected Patch tick of the year. Buzzing! Full-fat Patch tick.

Raven (3 over East) on 19^th was welcome, though they were scarce on Patch this year, with just 5 records. Previous years have seen flocks of up to 15 birds, and are sometimes seen on multiple consecutive days.

Golden Plover & Treecreeper on 24^th rounded off an excellent month.

Score: 66/69

February

February's first good bird was Siskin, pretty much bread 'n' butter here, but nice all the same, on 3^rd.

The first returning Curlew of the year dropped in on 17^th, always nice to have these iconic birds back in the dales.

The 25^th brought in a Patch MEGA, a full-fat Patch tick of a single Yellowhammer, well outside its normal winter range here in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. I saw presumably the same bird a couple of days later.

#Patchsilver of Dunlin found their way onto the list on 28^th thanks to still present floodwater.

Score: 72/75

March

A slow month, with returning breeding Redshank on 8^th, and Whooper Swan (5 over W) the only birds of any real note, though a week in Dumfries & Galloway may have seen me miss something good?!

Score: 76/80

April

13 bird species added in this promising month, mainly due to incoming summer migrants.

A drake Mandarin was the April Fool on the 1^st, an expected 2 point species now, with birds breeding. Agonisingly, I missed a poss./prob? Goshawk on the day as well. Sadly, I just didn't (don't!) have the necessary experience to nail this bird (rare in Yorkshire Dales) on such a brief, fleeting view in poor light. A Patch tick gone a' begging? Maybe the date was trying to tell me something!

Breeding Lesser Redpoll belatedly showed up on 7^th, with #Patchsilver Coot a surprise on 8^th.

Other notable summer migrant breeders were Common Sandpiper (earliest ever) & Redstart (both on 13^th), and Sedge Warbler on 23^rd.

Notable passage migrants this month were Jay on 13^th (rare 'tick' spring bird, with the species normally only showing in autumn) and Wheatear finally touching down on 22^nd (birds normally appear in late March). Best of all was a full-fat Patch tick male Ring Ouzel feeding with Blackbirds on meadowland. The commoner thrushes soon tired of their different-looking relative, and succeeded in driving him off into tree cover. Like the Black Grouse, this species is present in the surrounding hills, but unlike the grouse, I'm surprised the Ring Ouzel has taken so long to make the Patch list.

Score: 90/96

May

The 9^th heralded a Red Kite mobbed by a Curlew on the edge of town, just about annual these days.

Spotted Flycatcher was an earliest ever arrival on 13^th, whilst a Grasshopper Warbler (heard only) stayed for just a day on 14^th. A great 2 pointer for me, and the 1st record for 4 years on Patch.

Score:  94/102

June

A long wait followed for the next new bird, a roosting Long-eared Owl right next to the footpath, in the exact same location as the only 2 previous records. This proved to be the only new species of the month, but again, may have missed some with a week off Patch on the Yorkshire coast & The Lakes.

Score: 95/104

July

A brilliant month! I saw 4 owls, including another Long-eared, this time perched out in the open in the pouring rain.

The 2^nd and 10^th added Little Owl & Barn Owl respectively. The former was missed last year, though I've hopefully found a reliable location now. The latter species is beginning to make its presence known again in the dales, and is now expected on the year list, with local folk reporting ever more sightings, of this once almost unknown local bird.

A juvenile Stonechat was a 2nd ever record.

Best of all was saved for the last day of the month, when a cream-crown Marsh Harrier quartered the pastures on the North side of the Ure, looking a little out of place amongst Swaledale sheep, drystone walls, and steep fells. Decent viewing confirmed it as a juvenile, which struck as an extremely early record for a fledged young bird wandering well away from any nesting areas.

Score: 99/109

August

Here at Hawes, August always comes up trumps in terms of the highest number of species recorded (April a close 2^nd). This month followed suit, with the Marsh Harrier being seen a week later.

Passage migrants such as Tree Pipit, Whitethroat, Whinchat & a single Green Sandpiper (#Patchgold) dropped by on the 16^th, 17^th, 23^rd & 28^th. Sadly, the lone Whinchat was the sole Patch record. In previous years, up to 4 birds are seen almost daily throughout this month.

“Top 3” moment number 2 occurred on 31^st. As dusk approached, I popped out the front door to lock up, and my gaze was drawn to a near neighbours TV aerial, where a small raptor perched. Expecting a local Sparrowhawk, I grabbed the bins, and was astonished to be greeted with the sight of a juvenile Merlin (2^nd ever on Patch). Amazing! Perched up so brazenly in the middle of our small market town! I crept inside for the bridge camera, only for the bird to take-off as I reappeared, blasting over my own house. Damn, what a record shot that could have been! Still, great garden tick.

Score: 104/115

September/October

As the final 4 months of play kicked-off, my mid-season slump kicked-in, with NO new species added in what can always be 2 slow months in inland, upland Yorkshire Dales.

Score: 104/115

November

November stormed (literally, weather-wise) back with a bang. Goldeneye (far from guaranteed annually) and Gadwall (#Patchgold, only 2^nd ever) were brought in by the massive flooding.

Number 3 “Top 3” came by on 23^rd with a stonking ring-tail Hen Harrier flushing Snipe here and there out of the flooded pastures. A 3^rd record of this magnificent raptor which many birders rightfully love, and definitely one of my faves.

A rare Patch Great Black-backed Gull fly-through kept the ball rolling nicely.

Score: 108/120

December

In what is often the slowest Patch month, mainly due to sheer lack of birding time, Pintail & Tufted Duck came to the rescue, 2 decent Patch birds, particularly the latter, which failed to make an appearance last year. The Hen Harrier showed again on 2^nd, though this time with only a fleeting view.

Score: 110/122

That wrapped things up then. A brilliant year of Local Patch birding, with only 4 species missed from last year's comparatively paltry 99 species & 103 points (Water Rail, Yellow-legged Gull, Garden Warbler & Woodcock), despite broadly similar levels of effort.

Thanks all! Looking forward to this year!

BirdTrack: 346 complete lists, 14257 records

PWC2015 Nick Moran - Thetford

The dizzy heights of 130 species/155 points, back 2013, were already a distant memory by the time I hit the wall on 124 spp/139 pts in 2014. However, having a more ‘normal’ year – minus any 6-pointers and missing the likes of Common Crossbill and Marsh Harrier – did at least reduce my comparative score to an altogether more realistic 147. All I had to do was pot all the reds and screw back for the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black…

OK enough ropey snooker songs from the 80s; what did #PWC2015 bring to the Thetford area?

 

JANUARY

87 species | 94 points (63.95%) | 2^nd in Points table

2,070 BirdTrack records | 47 Complete Lists

It took me until 22^nd March to reach 87 species|94 points in 2014. Even in the year-to-beat, 2013, that total wasn’t achieved until 6^th March! 2014 began at my folks’ in York (handy for a quick dash for the Fraisthorpe Little Bustard on New Year’s Day!) and I didn’t get out on patch until 3^rd January. That didn’t seem to matter though, as there were 4 Pochard waiting for me on day 1. December’s Great Crested Grebe became the first I’d seen on patch in January (they usually vanish from the Brecks in winter), and both Barn Owl (which took until 29^th April in 2014) and wintering Chiffchaff (not guaranteed locally) obliged. Two days later was the first red-letter day: my first Pink-footed Goose since April 2011 (OK perhaps ‘origin unknown’ but we all tick Barnacle Goose!) and a Yellow-legged Gull, a good 2-pointer to lay to rest so early. Things kept improving: a Marsh Harrier (7/1) – a species I missed altogether in 2014 – was my first local winter record. Then, at long long last, a Caspian Gull appeared (12/1). It’s a shame that a Norfolk description species, a site first and true #patchgold only scored two points! Incredibly though, I went on to log three different individuals by 25/1, so perhaps two points is about right after all. An early Shelduck (13/1) was good, though a drake Mandarin Duck (17/1) was a real bonus, my first on patch for more than two years and a 2-pointer to boot! I didn’t have to wait long for two more bonus birds either: Grey Partridge and an exquisite male Bearded Tit (both 19/1), the former not annual in recent years and the latter only my 4^th patch record. Goosander (20/1) and Barnacle Goose (23/1) were useful additions; the goose was absent from my PWC2014 list. My record January finished in style too: exactly one year to the day after I added Jack Snipe to last year’s tally (31/1), I scooped one for 2015! There’s always something missing by the end of January: this year’s obvious gaps, poised to pad the list later on, were Linnet and Mistle Thrush!

 

FEBRUARY

95 species|105 points (71.43%) | 2^nd in Points table

3,654 BirdTrack records | 84 Complete Lists

Another good month began with ‘catch up’ Mistle Thrush (3/2). My earliest-ever Curlew and a fine 2cy Goshawk (8/2) – my first in February – were next, followed by Linnet (13/2). Little Owl and another patch February tick, Woodlark (19/2) obliged on Thetford Heath. Next up was Peregrine (22/2), before returning breeding Oystercatcher (26/2) rounded off the month. One of January’s Caspian Gulls appeared early in the month, and I logged February Shelduck and Chiffchaff for the first time too. Considering that Inland East Anglia contains several sites in the Broads, not to mention the fabled Paxton Inland Sea, I was staggered to discover I was still in 2^nd place 59 days into 2015! There’s a marker for you, Mr Rankin.

 

MARCH

98 species|110 points (74.83%) | 3^rd in Points table

5,154 BirdTrack records | 113 Complete Lists

March can be a bit flat locally and 2015 fitted that pattern, though a Stonechat (12/3) on Thetford Heath was good. Ringing at the Nunnery Lakes reserve produced a surprise Common Redpoll (23/3) in a poor winter for that (soon to be ex?) species, and a Belgian-ringed Lesser Redpoll. The last PWC2015 addition for the month was Stone-curlew (29/3), while Pink-footed Goose and Woodlark were both patch March ticks.

 

APRIL

117 species|132 points (89.80%) | 2^nd in Points table

7,195 BirdTrack records | 152 Complete Lists

Returning summer migrants were interspersed with some true #patchgold in THE month to be birding a Breckland patch. There was galling news on the 2^nd as a pair of croaking corvids were added to the Nunnery list by two colleagues and patch-interloper (and jammy g*t) Ben Moyes, while out filming with Iolo Williams. Fortunately (presumably) the same two Raven (3/4) flew over calling while I was ringing the next day: I was VERY grateful for that #patchgold grip-back! My first Swallow also appeared that day. Willow Warbler and Red Kite (7/4) were on cue, the latter being most frequently recorded here in spring. Shoveler, Blackcap and Cuckoo (9/4) were an odd trio of firsts of the year: Blackcap are often evident by late March, whereas ‘our’ Cuckoo may well have been the earliest in East Anglia in 2015. Whitethroat and House Martin (11/4) were followed by Sand Martin and Ring Ouzel (12/4). Although unusually high numbers of Ring Ouzel graced East Anglia in spring 2015, this was the only one seen around Thetford. Conversely, there were three individuals the previous April. Sedge Warbler (13/4) and Reed Warbler (14/4) were more or less on time, while Wheatear (22/4) was late for the first local sighting. Another three-tick day saw Garden Warbler, Swift and best of all, Nightingale (24/4) added to the list. Lesser Whitethroat (25/4) and Green Sandpiper (26/4) rounded off a great month.

 

MAY

118 species|133 points (90.48%) | 5^th in Points table

8,204 BirdTrack records | 172 Complete Lists

The only problem with April inland is that it is followed by May! Traditionally a good month for rarities on the coast, May sucks for new birds on my inland patch. That said, Spotted Flycatcher (14/5) proved to be one of just two local records this year; depressing, particularly as I caught a recently-fledged juvenile in my on-patch garden last year. Pink-footed Goose, Yellow-legged Gull, Stonechat and Meadow Pipit get honourable mentions as May patch ticks.

 

JUNE

120 species|135 points (91.84%) | 5^th in Points table

8,963 BirdTrack records | 189 Complete Lists

Common Tern (16/6) was welcome as I had missed it in two of the previous six years. Hobby (26/6) was my latest first of the year by exactly a month, while Mandarin and Woodlark were June ticks.

 

JULY

121 species|136 points (92.52%) | 5^th in Points table

10,098 BirdTrack records | 214 Complete Lists

The only addition this month was Redstart (23/7) but that’s another one not to be sniffed at, having been absent from my patch year-lists in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Cuckoo and Mandarin Duck were new for July; Cuckoos usually stop calling here in mid June and then go undetected until any juveniles appear in August. The other highlight was breaking the 10,000 BirdTrack records barrier!

 

AUGUST

127 species | 144 points (97.96%) | 4^th in Points table

11,190 BirdTrack records | 238 Complete Lists

August proved to be the last decent month on patch. Waders are always very thin on the ground through lack of suitable habitat so it was great to get my 6^th and 7^th records of Greenshank (3/8 and 27/8) in six years. Common Sandpiper (25/8) appeared on just two dates in the last week of August, a poor showing for a species that averages 4–5 records a year. Passerine goodies came in the form of a Firecrest (19/8) found by fellow Nunnery Lakes patcher Neil Calbrade, my second-ever Tree Pipit (23/8) and 3 Yellow Wagtail (27/8), a scarce migrant locally. Spring Yellow Wagtail records are invariably fly-over singletons, whilst the last ten days of August is the only period I’ve recorded them on the ground and in groups. True to form, the 2015 birds were a small flock of juveniles that dropped in to spend a morning with the cattle. The month ended for me with #patchgold, as BTO HQ evacuated for a fly-over Osprey (27/8), detected simultaneously by staff in at least four different offices – thanks to its three attendant Oystercatchers! Unfortunately August had a real sting in its tail as the month ended proper with a hugely gripping two-observer Wryneck. I heard about it first-hand as I walked out to Scolt Head on the north Norfolk coast: not where you want to be when a patch mega breaks! Despite several people searching for it that afternoon and me putting in 12 hours over the next 3 days, it was never seen again. On a more positive note, patch month-ticks featured an eclectic mix of Shelduck, Mandarin Duck, Little Grebe, Goshawk, Lesser Whitethroat and Mistle Thrush.

 

SEPTEMBER

128 species | 145 points (98.64%) | 4^th in Points table

12,007 BirdTrack records | 259 Complete Lists

September: great month for coastal patches, a write-off inland. Or at least, in the Brecks. The same or another Osprey (9/9) was great to see and Green Sandpiper (11/9) was a surprise September tick but the only addition was a fleeting Whinchat (16/9).

 

OCTOBER

129 species | 147 points (100%) | 5^th in Points table

13,450 BirdTrack records | 291 Complete Lists

October is fickle: previous years have boasted such local megas as Common Scoter and Little Gull but equally it can be a(nother) quiet month. Such was the case in 2015: the only points – my last of the year – came in the form of the first Cetti’s Warbler (31/10) on patch since they bred in 2009. Herring Gull was a month tick…though reading the (metal) ring on what proved to be just the 8^th German-ringed Cormorant to be found in Britain – while it was very much alive and well – provided much more satisfaction!

 

NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER

129 species | 147 points (100%) | 5^th in Points table (after November)

15,568 BirdTrack records | 335 Complete Lists

The Cetti’s Warbler remained into the New Year, adding itself to three month lists in the process. Apart from that, a Caspian Gull (25/11) would have been big news had it not been for the glut of them in Jan/Feb, and a Jack Snipe (11/12) made 2015 only the second year in which I’ve had more than one record.

 

So that’s it. Lots of local, green birding and bird-recording, some good birds and all enhanced by the sense of community and wider perspective brought about by Patchwork Challenge. A big thanks to all involved in making it happen and bring on #PWC2016…preferably with at least one bonus pointer, given that it’s now more than two years since the last one!