Nick Morgan - Ainderby Steeple #PWC2015 Review

2015 was my second year of PWC so the competition for the comparative league title was a real added incentive to get out in the field this year.

January started quietly but I managed to pick up most of the regular resident and wintering species. Pick of the birds were Green Sandpiper, Redshank and Grey Wagtail giving a January total of 64 species.

February’s highlight was undoubtedly Water Rail, a long anticipated first record for the parish.

But the second patch sighting of Goldeneye and the first winter record of Little Egret were also noteworthy. A cracking flock of 200+ buntings got all the common species ticked off and February also turned up Oystercatcher, Siskin and wintering Blackcap pushing the list to 72 species.

March is the best chance of finding Whooper Swans here as they move up through the Vale of Mowbray but with no standing water on the patch it’s mainly a matter of luck so a group of nine flying over was a bonus. A flock of Thirteen Goosander,  Shelduck, Barn Owl and the first summer migrants, Chiffchaff and Wheatear, helped push the March total to 78 species.

April was productive with this typically skulking Grasshopper Warbler a new patch tick for me.

A pair of Little Ringed Plover on a small field pool were #patchsilver and Red Kite and Cuckoo (depressingly my first patch record for almost a decade) as well as a number of regular summer migrants pushed me on to 89 species by the month end.

May added Whinchat, a very scarce migrant in the parish, and the first of a record number of Hobby sightings (chasing Swallows around the church). With the rest of the summer migrants ticked off  I was up to 99 species, 10 ahead of the equivalent point in 2014, a further spur to getting out there…

It then ground to a halt with no new year ticks in June or July although searching for them gave me a good picture of the breeding birds on the patch including the best ever year for Barn Owl and at least 10 singing Corn Buntings.

Apart from Chiffchaff and Blackcap most summer migrants were noticeably scarce although it was better than recent years for Spotted Flycatcher.

August got me back on track with some good local finds including another patch first in the form of three Mandarin, a Yellow-legged Gull amongst hundreds of large gulls loafing by the Swale and Common Sandpiper on the river. In late August a day of torrential rain dropped my first and second patch records respectively of Tree Pipit and Stonechat into the same field. Together these moved me on to 104 species.

September added Osprey and my first Lesser Redpoll of the year and for the first time I crept ahead of Steve Ward in Wensleydale, literally my nearest rival. A skein of 100 Pink-footed Geese and a cracking Peregrine over the house in October kept me in top spot in the Inland North Comparative League.  

The second winter period was dominated by floods but despite good numbers of common birds I only managed to add Wigeon to my annual tally in November and Steve leap-frogged me into first place.

Floods

So it all came down to the last month. The floods attracted record numbers of Teal and over 1000 Golden Plover but more importantly from a PWC point of view the first parish record of Shoveler, my first winter record of Greenshank and only my second patch record of Gadwall…

Giving me a final total of 112 species/120 points. Enough to finish a hair’s breadth ahead of Steve.

With Steve in it again and Chris Knight entering a patch in the neighbouring village, 2016 is hopefully shaping up to be another year of enjoyable birding and intense if friendly rivalry…

Nick Morgan - Ainderby Steeple 2014

My patch is the area around my home village of Ainderby Steeple in North Yorkshire. It’s a typical intensively farmed area and with an all time parish list of 138 species I wouldn’t suggest dropping your plans to visit Cape May or Eilat. I do have an almost Gilbert Whiteian attachment to the place though and living ‘on patch’ allows for pretty good coverage (when work and family allows). 

Most of the area is high grade (i.e. low bird) farmland but there are areas of pasture and rough grazing, a couple of more traditional farms with good hedgerows and a nice stretch of the river Swale. Flooding occurs periodically although recent drainage  has reduced its prevalence. One of the most productive areas on the patch is a neighbour’s superb garden including a large reed-fringed pond (the only area of standing water on the patch) and a small area of damp woodland.

2014 was my first year of Patchwork Challenge and so I thought other patchers might like a brief look at the less-lowlights of the year (if only to realise how lucky they are!).

January kicked off with good areas of floodwater and this attracted a new patch tick in the form of a group of 11 Ruff. No unusual wildfowl were seen but there were record counts of Teal and Greylags, a flock of around 160 Curlew and good numbers of Golden Plover. Oystercatcher and Shelduck were added by March. Goosander are regular on the river but it was nice to get a pair low over the garden.

The first summer migrant was Sand Martin with Chiffchaff also seen before the end of March. A single passage Wheatear was my only sighting of the year but other summer visitors came in broadly on time.  

A singing Sedge Warbler was a surprise find in May having not bred on the patch for more than a decade and, completely unexpected, was a flyover Arctic Tern, the first parish record. Most frustrating sighting of the year though was Kittiwake. A friend had called to say he had spotted a large flock of Kits high up heading my way, I did eventually catch up with them but half-a-mile outside my patch boundary.

The breeding season saw good numbers of Yellow Wagtails, at least nine singing Corn Buntings and it was a great year for Garden Warblers, not always an easy species in the parish. Depressingly I didn’t see or hear Cuckoo on the patch this year.

Late summer saw probably my bird of the year, a Reed Warbler briefly holding territory around the neighbour’s pond (yes I know but we inland birders are easily pleased and it was the first record in the village for more than 60 years). It was also the best year yet for Little Egret Sightings with up to five birds on the river where I added Common Sandpiper and Grey Wagtail.

A Ringed Plover in September was one of only a handful of sightings in the parish. Like many of the patch wader records this was a fly-over and my lottery-winning dream would be to transform the bottom fields back to the marshy areas they were up to the 1950s when species like Black-headed Gull and Teal bred and there were records of birds like Marsh Harrier and Bar-tailed Godwit. A Marsh Tit was another pleasing find,  having not been seen in the village for over a decade, but it’s perhaps disturbing that it was only in late September that I spotted my first Treecreeper.

Autumn saw an influx of Jays with almost daily sightings through to the year end
(compared with only a dozen records in the preceding 20 years) and a nice passage of Woodcock with at least four birds seen in the magic garden alone, including one flushed from a tree. A good influx of Goldcrests in October meant I was sure I would spot a Yellow-browed Warbler (but hopes were dashed as usual!) and I also picked up Lesser Redpoll then in what had been a very poor year for the species.

The last week of December saw a final flourish with three year ticks all seen on the river in icy conditions, Redshank, Green Sandpiper and Goldeneye (the latter bird only the second parish sighting) to finish on 98 species.

Villagers often ring me to report birds and in 2014 this included six species I didn’t catch up with so it shouldn’t be difficult to breach the 100 mark. With a good start to 2015 (already at 64% of my 2014 figure) I’m certainly looking to break last year’s total and remain ever hopeful for that elusive five pointer….