The Old Caley Year Review 2022

The Big Year review!

A memorable birding year in the life of the Old Caley's with a dream fulfilled, some terrific birds seen and friendships made and cemented. The Big Year quest, to see 300 bird species in the year, took over our birding lives (and quite a lot of the rest of them). We spent countless hours on the road, dashing from one place to another in pursuit of birds to add to the list, spent a fortune on petrol and likely halved the value of our car. But it was a dream and we're glad we did it. We ended the year on exactly 300 species. We could have added a few more but once we'd realised the ambition, our drive for more birds dissipated in an instant. The best year of birding in our lives was also at times extremely stressful and very tiring. Read on for a review of the highlights of our year.

Life Ticks

Incredibly our 300 birds contained only 9 new birds for the life list which moved up through the 400 barrier to 403.  Those "lifers" in order of seeing them were;

1) Pacific Diver (Gavia Pacifica); we'd ignored this long staying bird that had been present at a reservoir near Port Talbot in South Wales for months at the end of 2021. It took a gentle nudge from my mate Mark to finally galvanise and travel down in January to see it. A difficult but memorable twitch which is written up here. Probably the bird that made up our minds to go for the Big Year. Seen on January 23rd.

2) Red-tailed Shrike (Lanius phoenicuroides); it was amazing, considering that when we travelled to Bempton Cliffs in July to twitch this very rare Shrike (aka Turkestan Shrike) we had seen nearly 250 species already, that this was only the second lifer of the year. The Shrike had first been found while we were on holiday in Scotland so we had to wait for almost a month before we got our chance to see it. Ironically we were at Bempton on the first day of that holiday to twitch a Woodchat Shrike! Seen on July 9th.

3) Cape Gull (Larus dominicanus); I'd never heard of this bird, unsurprisingly since it was the first of its kind to be seen and recorded in Britain. Also known as Kelp Gull, one was discovered at Grafham Water on a blistering hot day in August. At the time of the first report we were slogging away on the South Oxfordshire Downs looking for a pair of Great Bustards. The most frenetic twitch of the year as befits a national first. I blogged it here. Seen on August 7th.

4) Great Shearwater (Puffinus gravis); as landlocked birders, seabirds were poorly represented on our life lists. To correct that I booked us on a pelagic trip out of Falmouth in September. It turned into probably the best single days birding of the year. Before we set out we had never seen a Great Shearwater. By the time we'd returned to port seven hours later we'd seen over 300! Read about that terrific trip here. Seen on September 10th.

5) Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus); also seen on the pelagic trip. A bird that was long overdue on our list. Seeing the Shearwaters from a boat on calm seas and at literally arms length at times was thrilling. Will book another in 2023 when hopefully we'll add Cory's Shearwater to the life list.

6) Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor); we had speculated a lot over which bird would take our life list on to 400. Never did I dream that it would be a North American version of a Nightjar that was found in my home county. When I received a message whilst at work, on the local WhatsApp group announcing that there was a Common Nighthawk in Wantage and to "Standby for details", I began packing my tools away immediately. This just couldn't be missed. I collected Mrs Caley from home and made it to watch the amazing bird sat on a fence. What a bird for the milestone! Read about it here. Seen on September 26th.

7) Alpine Accentor (Prunella collaris); another long awaited addition. We narrowly missed out on one a number of years back so it was great to finally get another chance at the end of October. Because this was the first readily available one of the species for a long time, Slaughden beach in Suffolk was besieged by birders. The beautiful little cousin of our familiar Dunnock showed fabulously well too. Seen on October 28th.

8) Pied Wheatear (Oenanthe pleschanka); we were closing in our Big Year target and thus had to cast our net further afield and pick up whatever birds we could so we had to travel even more than ever if we were to realise our aims. So it was that we made our longest day trip of the year to Whitley Bay in the North-east to add the extremely confiding Pied Wheatear to both lists. Lucky we went when we did as well since the bird disappeared overnight after being present for a week. That trip is detailed here. Seen on November 12th.

9) Olive-backed Pipit (Anthus hodgsoni); the bird that sealed the deal. Species number 300 of the year and ultimately the most satisfying bird of the year. Another long awaited addition to the life list, the Olive-backed Pipit was the third in a flurry of late entry Pipits on to the year list. It was a gorgeous bird too and is blogged in this post here. Seen on December 17th.

Old Caley's Top Ten Birds of 2022

Having seen 300 species in the year choosing a top ten was never going to be easy and as always there will be some overlap with the life ticks detailed above. So I've changed this to a Top Ten Memorable Encounters with Birds in 2022. Some of those experiences involved birds already mentioned above and it was a difficult choice to choose from so many others but here are the best.

1) Once again there could only be one winner of top bird of the year and that accolade had to go to the amazing Common Nighthawk. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I'd see one in Oxfordshire. Although the bird never moved from its roosting spot on a garden fence in a quiet cul-de-sac until darkness fell, it was an exhilarating sight and proved yet again that anything can turn up anywhere. The title of my blog of the bird and events of the twitch was "Unbelievable" and it truly was. But the bird proved that unbelievable is not impossible!

2) We'd spent the afternoon strolling around Farmoor watching a very long staying Great Northern Diver and some Arctic Terns. When back at the car I received a message from a good friend telling me that he'd seen an Owl be hit by a car. He sent me a video too and I was astonished to see that it was a Long-eared Owl. I got the details and drove to the site arriving almost as it was getting dark. The road was extremely busy with rush hour traffic but I was able to walk along the grass verge and get a decent view of a county tick from the opposite side of the road. The Long-eared Owl didn't appear to be any worse for wear and wasn't there the next day so hopefully flew off unscathed.

3) On our way up to the Cairngorms we heard that an adult Ring-billed Gull had been seen at Loch Turret near Crieff. Initially it wasn't to be seen but when it did fly in we had sensational views including watching it snaffle somebody's leftover picnic!

4) Our views of Dotterel in the Cairngorms was limited to a brief flyover from just a single bird. The pair of birds, an adult male and a juvenile, that turned up on Cleeve Hill provided us with a second chance of seeing the species. And they were superb!

5) For years I've tried to get good views and photos of a Honey Buzzard. On the day we saw some (rather underwhelming) Bee-eaters at a specially set up RSPB watchpoint, we got lucky at Swanton Novers with a pair of the rare birds of prey soaring high above us, the female showing particularly well.

6) It had been a long time since I'd seen my first American Robin. That had been way back in my football watching days and I'd cajoled my mate into making a detour to Grimsby on the way to Scarborough so that I could see one snacking out by a burger van in an industrial estate. So my second was very welcome and it showed wonderfully well in a housing estate in Eastbourne.

7) I only saw my first Sooty Shearwater last year and it was a half a mile away in the pouring rain sighting so hardly one to write home about. We saw hundreds of Shearwaters and Storm-petrels from a pelagic boat trip into Falmouth Bay in September but it was the Sooty Shearwaters that thrilled me the most.

8) We had a fantastic week in Northumberland before heading up to Scotland. The bird I most wanted to see while there was the American Black Tern that had been identified the year before and which had returned to the Tern colony at Long Nanny for another summer. Amongst the sights and sounds of the boisterous Arctic Terns it was the smaller Marsh Tern species that hogged the limelight.

9) The juvenile Red-necked Phalarope that entertained birders for weeks at Brockhall Gravel Pits near Hereford during September really showed well to a few of us on a sunny Sunday morning towards the end of its stay. At times the bird would swim to within feet of where we sat at the waters edge. A brilliant close encounter.

10) I just couldn't leave the Black-browed Albatross out. It was our number 1 bird in 2021, but Albie was again the star bird of our trip to Bempton at the end of May and I left with another memory card full of images. I can't wait to see that bird again in 2023.

Other really good birds seen and the enjoyable memories of them that could have made this list but didn't were Greater Sand Plover, Black-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, Isabelline Wheatear, Sabine's Gull, Dusky Warbler, Collared Pratincole, Barred Warbler, Wryneck, Common Rosefinch, Whiskered Tern, Squacco Heron, Bonaparte's Gull, King Eider and loads more!

The Next Three Best Local Birds of 2022

Number 1 on the local birding front has already topped the main poll and the number 2 bird came second so here are the next three worthy birds.

3) The Pallas's Warbler found by my mate Gareth at Abingdon Water Treatment Works early in the New Year would normally be a worthy winner of any local contest. The fact that it was upstaged by another, even more amazing species was incredible and summed up what an amazing year it was for Oxon birding. The Pallas's Warbler was the first of four county ticks in 2022, followed by the Long-eared Owl, Dartford warbler and of course the Common Nighthawk.

4) Grasshopper Warbler has always been a favourite species of mine ever since I had point-blank views of one in a local wood near home nearly thirty years ago. The reeling bird that I found at my local Bicester Wetlands Reserve in April was the showiest one I've seen. 

5) Likewise, I've always loved Yellow-browed Warblers and the diminutive cousin of the Pallas's Warbler bookended the year when the one we saw at Cambridge in the first week of January was supplemented by one in Oxford at the end of December. I will never get tired of watching these little sprites.

Self-found Bird of the Year

Only one candidate and that was the juvenile Rosy Starling that I found in the centre of St Just during our holiday in September. I ran back to the car to grab my camera and capture a few images before it flew. It's always a big thrill to find a decent bird yourself.

2023 Wish List

With the Big Year dream achieved it's back to less stressful birding. We'll be doing less travelling and more local birding. We'll still count the birds of course but won't be driving hundreds of miles to see birds that we've already seen before. If there's a new bird to add to the life list though, then that'll be another matter. Twitching is a way of life!