The Old Caley Year Review 2023

Last year the first paragraph of my 2022 year review read like this;

"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."

This years summary can be written in exactly the same words except for the fact that we achieved 315 birds this time. My promise (to ourselves) that we wouldn't repeat the madness of going for a "Big Year" wasn't heeded and we somehow ended up going for it again (I blame Kev). We are definitely not doing it again in 2024. I'm getting an ankle bracelet fitted that stops me going out of Oxfordshire. Unless there is something rare enough that I need it for my life list.

I had a new camera for 2023, taking charge of a mirrorless Canon R7 which proved to be a game-changer for me. Once I'd learned to use it!

Life Ticks

In 2022 in our three hundred total only nine were additions to our life list. In 2023 we added nineteen birds to that list! It was obviously a much better year for variety of species in the UK and I guess we went on some longer trips to twitch birds than we have ever done before. In order of making the list they were;

1) Alpine Swift (Apus melba); I'd longed to see one of these large and dynamic Swifts for a long time. A small influx of them was discovered in various sites in Ireland during the first two weeks of March and a few found their way over to England. One was found in grim rainy weather on the afternoon of the 15th flying over the visitor carpark at Oldbury Power Station in Gloucestershire and was seen to go to roost on the buildings. We got there early the following morning. The Alpine Swift was still at roost so was ticked quite easily. We had a nervy two hour wait for the Swift to stir itself from its slumber. Once airborne it showed superbly well over the carpark. After struggling to focus on the fast moving bird, I learned a lot about how (not) to use my camera that day!

Read the blog post for the Alpine Swift twitch here.

2) White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii); Our second North American Sparrow species in as many years after the White-throated Sparrow in April 2021. Both were seen in Sussex too, they must like the look of the coast in those parts as they sail past. This bird was found in a densely vegetated valley but was tempted out of the cover by a liberal scattering of seed being scattered on a path. We took our chance on the morning of the 28th of April and got decent views on a grey and misty day.

The White-crowned Sparrow features in a blog post here.

3) Grey-headed Lapwing (Vanellus cinereus); I admit that I'd never heard of the bird found at Newton scrapes at the beginning of May by local birder Gary Woodburn. Not too many people had, this largely Chinese and Japanese species which should be somewhere along the west pacific flyway, had never been recorded in Britain before! A few days later on the 5th of May we made the long trip north to see it. Views were good although distant. What a cracker!

My blog post featuring the Grey-headed Lapwing is detailed here.

4) White-winged Scoter (Melanitta deglandi); We decided that considering that Northumberland was closer to Fife than home that we may as well book a hotel on the hoof and add the Scoter-fest in Largo. So after a nice overnighter in Glenrothes we joined quite a crowd on the seafront at Lower Largo on the 6th of May. The wide bay there had attracted a large flock of Velvet and Common Scoters and also contained some much rarer Surf Scoters, up to three even rarer White-winged Scoters and really rare Stejneger's Scoter (see below). Luckily for us and many others there were some expert birders on site and one of them was able to get us on to all of the rare Scoters. The White-winged version is similar to Velvet Scoter but has a larger white mark around the eyes and has white panels on the wing. All of the ducks were distant offshore so I was delighted to get any usable photos.

The full blog of the Scoter-fest is here.

5) Stejneger's Scoter (Melanitta stejnegeri); A little further along the shore, by the hotel, another raft of Scoters contained the jewel in the Scoter crown, the Stejneger's Scoter. Again somebody more skilled Than myself helped us to locate the bird. Stejneger's is similar to White-winged but has a very pronounced swelling on the upper bill. It was the third lifer in less than eighteen hours of birding!

The Stejneger's is blogged at the same place here.

6) Iberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus ibericus); One of the biggest omissions from my life list was finally added on the 13th of May. We travelled into Sussex on a glorious day to listen to the Iberian Chiffchaff with a subtly different song to our familiar (Common) Chiffchaff. The bird could be elusive in the treetops but eventually I managed some good views and photos for posterity.

A short feature of the Iberian Chiffchaff is contained in my post here.

7) White-billed Diver (Gavia adamsii); While taking in a picnic at Dunnet Bay in Northern Scotland on the 12th of June, I spotted a large Diver species reasonably close in. I could make out a pale and large bill so realised that I'd found the White-billed Diver that had been in the bay for a week or so. The Diver disappeared but I picked it up again later in the day on a second visit. This time it was with a Great Northern Diver which I'm more familiar with but sadly was much further out making photography impossible as shown by the record shot below. Hopefully I'll be able to see another soon and get a decent photo for the portfolio.

The blog for that day is here.

8) Black-winged Kite (Elanus caeruleus); Not quite another British first but pretty close. After the first had been seen by just two lucky observers in mid-Wales earlier in the year, another Black-winged Kite was found at Horsey in Norfolk in mid-July. It was largely only seen either leaving its roost or flying into it. I was busy at work and didn't have a window to go for it until the Friday of July 21st. Unfortunately the Kite flew off south on the Thursday so it seemed as if we'd be out of luck but was amazingly found at Felixstowe Ferry later in the evening. I then managed to wake late on the Friday, I had intended to be in Suffolk for first light, and then dithered over whether to still go. By the time we arrived the Kite was mobile but very fortunately was still hanging around and we managed a brief and distant view of the departing bird. One of those annoying anticlimactic twitches but at least we got eyes on the bird and that counts. So nearly a painful dip!

photo kindly provided by Mike Alibone

My account of that twitch is here.

9) Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri); This rare North American species was discovered in the environs of Poole Harbour in May. Before we could get to go and see it though, it became very elusive and then disappeared. It was refound in early July and then became regular at Shipstal Point on the RSPB's reserve at Arne. Our chance came on the 29th of July but we were waylaid by traffic so by the time we got there the Tern, which had been showing really well, had flown off. We had to wait for almost five and half hours before it flew back in to the roost. Sometimes you have to be patient!

The full blog post is here.

10) Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea borealis); We were in Cornwall primarily to take in a pelagic trip out into Falmouth Bay to hopefully get more close up views of Shearwaters and Petrels. We were staying overnight before the boat trip so took some time out to visit Pendeen in the afternoon. It was pretty windy and the sea was wild, and it was raining but I braved the elements and was rewarded with my first ever Cory's Shearwaters which passed the lighthouse reasonably close in. A few weeks later I'd see several hundred while disastrously dipping the Red-footed Booby at the Bishop Rock lighthouse off the Isles of Scilly. But those two seen on August 13th were for the tick and completed the set of Shearwaters that can be expected in British waters.

The full blog of the Scilly day-trip that was both successful and a failure is here.

11) Wilson's Storm Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus); After completing the Shearwater set (little did I know at the time, that there'd be another one to get), the bird I most wanted to see while on the pelagic with Captain Keith's AK Wildlife cruises in Falmouth Bay was the Wilson's Storm Petrel. There was a good shout of seeing one as well with Keith boasting much success on previous journeys. On a very rough sailing owing to the continued swell left behind by the previous days stormy weather, when we happened upon a flock of European Storm Petrels, I noticed one behaving differently and "pogoing" on the water's surface. I had read up just the night before that the signature dance move of punk-rockers was also a trait of the Wilson's. Unfortunately the half a dozen shots I managed were far from sharp, in fact they were as blunt as a spoon, but there was enough to go on that indicated I'd captured a Wilson's Storm Petrel. I was absolutely elated!

The blog of the full pelagic is written up here.

12) Scopoli's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea diomedea); The most contentious of my lifers since full ratification would have to be given by the British Rarities Committee for any of the three Shearwaters called as Scopoli's as opposed to the much more Cory's from The Scillonian  ferry that we took to the Isles of Scilly on the 27th August, and the one that the boat-load of birders saw close to the Bishop Rock. I saw one of the birds from the ferry clearly and followed it for a while but it was too far out for photos. I reacted well to the shout aboard the MV Kingfisher and even obtained a couple of photos of the bird but unfortunately I didn't capture the underwing which is vital to separate a Scopoli's from a Cory's. You can see the slim build, wings and bill but without the underwing then you can't be a hundred percent sure. Luckily, however, other people did get shots of the underwing of the same bird and were confident in the call of Scopoli's. 

The account of the epic trip to the Bishop Rock is here.

13) Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola); I had wanted to see an Aquatic Warbler of over twenty years ever since I dipped on at Boddington Reservoir. Aquatic Warblers are rare passage birds to the south coast of England during autumn and are extreme skulkers and therefore can be very elusive. In the years since I'd never even had a sniff at another one. The one was found next to a river at Upper Seeding in West Sussex. I couldn't go for the first couple of days but took the day off work on the 11th of August and slinked down to the coast. Even then I waited on news of the birds continued presence before travelling. We connected within minutes of arriving and went onto have the most amazing views of the bird which completely bucked the tendencies of the species to stay hidden. Some of my best photos taken in the year as well.

A blog will appear here one day soon.

14) Magnolia Warbler (Setophaga magnolia); During an unprecedented influx of North American passerines to our shores, a Magnolia Warbler was discovered in a coastal valley in Pembrokeshire. We couldn't resist twitching the bird and joined a fair number of others staring longingly into an area of scrub  on the 22nd of September. Our first view was fleeting but my word what a fabulous looking bird. Unlike our familiar Warblers which are at best adorned in browns and greens with only hints of brighter colours, the New World Warblers are generally brightly coloured birds. That first view of the bright yellow underparts of the Magnolia Warbler took my breath away. `the bird was somewhat elusive but eventually we got decent views and I managed a few reasonable photos of the bird as it fed deep within a thicket of hawthorn trees.

A blog of the memorable twitch will appear here.

15) Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius); We made another twitch to Cornwall on the weekend of the 1st of October primarily to see a juvenile Northern Harrier that had been discovered on Goonhilly Downs on The Lizard. We stayed overnight so that we could be on site at first light. One of the birders spotted the Harrier perched on a distant fencepost so we added the bird quickly to our list. I watched the Harrier well through the scope when it flew but then it disappeared. We gave up three hours later and couldn't re-find it at other spots around the area. I didn't take any photos.

photo kindly provided by Shaun Ferguson

See here for the full story.

16) Red-headed Bunting (Emberiza bruniceps); Back in 2016 we saw a cracking male Black-headed Bunting while holidaying on the Isle of Skye. I vaguely remembered, while researching, that there was also a Red-headed Bunting which was closely related to the former but much rarer. Incredibly the pale Bunting that was found at Flamborough Head was, after some deliberation, assigned to the Red-headed variety. It took us a while before we travelled up to see it on the 28th October, by which time DNA taken from a poo sample had definitively determined its identity, and the Red-headed Bunting became the major star of a bird-filled day which also included Two-barred Greenish, Dusky and Pallas's Warblers and later a Rough-legged Buzzard, Short-eared Owls and Hen harriers near Hull.

The full blog of that day will appear here.

17) Little Crake (Porzana parva); One of those amazing occurrences when a local Milton Keynes birder posted a photo on social media asking for the identification of a mystery bird that he'd seen at Linford Lakes. The bird in question was a Little Crake and a major twitch was on. Local birders arranged to monitor the site voluntarily and for a small fee people who wished to see the bird could access the normally members only site. We managed to go on the second day after the Crake had been found, on the 8th of November, and joined plenty of others in the packed Otter Hide. After a tense few minutes the Little Crake appeared and slowly made its way right to the front of the hide giving superb views to all.

The full story of that twitch is here.

18) Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus); Another bird that I really wanted to see and one that had proved impossible to connect with on numerous occasions before. Thankfully one was found roosting on a church in Winterton-on-sea in Norfolk and it stayed in the area for more than a week. We travelled to see it on the 17th of November, a day when I was beginning to suffer big time with man-flu (later proven to be covid). We saw the Pallid Swift immediately and went on to gain some fine views. For some one who is a big lover of Swifts, this bird ticked all of my boxes!

I even managed to blog this bird up as well here.

19) Canvasback (Aythya valisineria); Ducks are problem birds owing to the many escapees from private collections and hybrids that occur which clouds the true provenance of many. However, when species from other parts of the world turn up in Britain during suitable weather patterns and with the right carrier species then there is a good chance that they'll be the real deal. Such is true of the Canvasback, a duck of the USA and Canada, that was found within a flock of some 300 Common Pochards at Abberton Reservoir. We got to see it on the 25th of November and had great fun isolating it from the Pochards which look very similar.

The blog will be posted here.

Old Caley's Top Ten Birds of 2023

Mrs Caley and myself saw 315 species in the year, an upgrade of 15 on the previous year when we achieved our first "Big Year" so 2023 becomes our best ever year for accumulating bird species and we'll probably never emulate it in the future. With some many bird seen and so many memories made choosing a top ten was even harder than it had been the year before. As with last year there will be overlaps with the list of lifers above because chasing new birds is a thrilling thing to do. So this is another Top Ten Memorable Encounters with Birds. This time in 2023. 

Many factors are considered when choosing the best ten birds, the moment, the memory, the bird itself of course, but also whether or not I got a decent photo to show off or not! Here's my ten;

1) Even though we saw many rarer birds in 2023, including a couple of firsts for Britain, it was the Aquatic Warbler that sticks foremost in my mind. After not expecting much because of the species preference to hide in thick grasses, the views that were obtained were exceptional and a huge surprise. For once I was on top form with the camera as well. Very, very happy that day!

2) The day after our disappointing trip to the Bishop Rock where we dipped a Red-footed Booby which had obliged everybody else that had been to see it, amazingly a Brown Booby had also been found resting on the same lighthouse. Did I ever curse my luck along with seventy other birders. Fortunately another Brown Booby was found in the estuary of the River Tees this time showing a liking for a light-buoy. Birders and local fishermen cooperated and organised boats to go out and get close views of the bird. I took my chance and had the most amazing ten minutes with a sensational bird.

 

3) On a vile wet weather day in January we travelled to Slapton Ley with two birds to find. We failed to find the Ring-necked Duck but did connect with our main target a fabulous Laughing Gull which both buried the anticlimactic tick of our first one at Chew Valley Lake in 2020 but also provided us with an hour of great entertainment as the Gull gladly took any food that was offered by visitors to the carpark nearby. Very reminiscent of the Ring-billed Gull the previous summer, the Laughing Gull provided umpteen close photo opportunities.

4) We joined in the fun in deepest Pembrokeshire by twitching the fabulous Magnolia Warbler. If we'd waited another day then we may have seen a Canada Warbler as well but by most accounts that was probably a bun-fight too far. Watching the Magnolia Warbler flit around as energetically as any of our own Warbler species and trying to snatch photos of it was fun!

5) April saw an influx of Black-crowned Night Herons into the country. Two of them were found together on the River Calder near Ossett in Yorkshire. Next to a waste disposal facility the river was far from photogenic but the birds certainly made up for the rubbish by providing the sparkle on an enjoyable day.

6) My most wanted seabird was the Cory's Shearwater. I booked us another trip on a Falmouth Bay pelagic but that failed to provide any although did give us another lifer in the shape of the Wilson's Storm Petrel. I then had distant views of two Cory's from Pendeen a fortnight later but on the ferry journey over to Scilly and then on the memorable boat ride to the Bishop Rock and back saw loads more. Gaining photos of the Cory's while being flung around like a rag doll aboard the MV Kingfisher was possibly the biggest white-knuckle ride of them all and will never be forgotten.

7) The day before seeing the Laughing Gull in January, I probably learned more about my, new at the time, mirrorless camera when I took over six hundred photos in just twenty minutes of a superb Sabine's Gull on the Hampshire coast. I changed the speed setting of the camera from fifteen frames per second to a more leisurely and manageable two point five shortly afterwards! We saw a lovely juvenile Sabine's late in 2022, so to see this full adult just a month our so later was awesome.

8) I could have chosen many different types of Warbler for this year's review but have settled on a Firecrest, one of six that we saw during a fine sunny morning on our October holiday. I've seen loads of Firecrests before and took some nice photos way back at the start of the year but the ten minute session by the engine shed in the Kenidjack is as good as I've ever had with the species.

9) I'm not a big fan of "staged" wildlife photography but having become tired of only getting distant views of White-tailed Eagles recently, I booked us an Eagle safari boat out of Portree on the Isle of Skye. We were treated to four different "Sea Eagles" that day, two of which dived for the offered fish. It was the bird that soared over the boat for a while that I really appreciated most.

10) The year was a notable one for an influx of Waxwing in the second winter period. However, the two well-watched birds near Bedford provided the best views of the twenty or so that we've seen in 2023. Sadly the crab-apple tree that they fed on was felled by the owners of the garden that it stood in because they became fed up with the constant attention that the birds were given by the hundreds of people that came to see them. My photo shown was used as inspiration for the painting done by Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) in the Sky TV production of "Painting Birds with Jim & Nancy Moir". I received a namecheck in the end of show credits. A signed print of the painting would have been nice.

11) I'm pushing it but there are other birds that deserve a mention this year starting with a superb White Stork that flew around Summer Leys nature reserve while we were twitching a Kentish Plover. The best views I've ever had of any Stork. Now I've seen as many White Storks as I have Black Storks!

12) The Marsh Warbler that we saw in Lincolnshire at the start of June bucked the trend of these renowned skulkers by showing out in the open for long periods while it sang for a mate. As I understand it, the species bred successfully too so his efforts weren't wasted.

13) We saw two Purple Herons during the year, the first in Warwickshire in September and the other in Gloucestershire in November. They could conceivably have been the same bird.

14) I'll finish this section with the juvenile Red-backed Shrike that graced a hillside nature reserve near Shoreham-on-sea in September. We had great views of the bird as it hunted bees, wasps and other insects.

We saw so many good birds through the year that this list could go on and on. Those omitted include King Eider, Lesser Grey Shrike, Dusky Warbler, Pallas's Warbler, Two-barred Greenish Warbler, European Storm Petrel, Great Shearwater, Hume's Leaf Warbler, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, White-rumped Sandpiper, Ferruginous Duck, Hawfinch, Icterine Warbler, Parrot Crossbill, Rough-legged Buzzard, Semipalmated Sandpiper and many more. Most are blogged elsewhere in my blog.

The Top Three Local Birds of 2023

There were five county ticks seen in the year, the three listed below plus a very distant American Wigeon on Otmoor and a heard only Spotted Crake also on Otmoor. I've also included another bird that showed supremely well and deserved inclusion.

1) The first county tick was the drake American Wigeon seen in February. Next up was the fine male Lesser Scaup at Farmoor at the beginning of March. We'd seen a Lesser Scaup two weeks before at Staines Reservoir and was likely the same bird that relocated to Oxon. Our views at Staines were at great distance, the ones at Farmoor were from a few feet at times. The first I'd seen for nearly twenty years!

2) A county blocker that needed removing presented itself in the shape of a Black-winged Stilt on Otmoor in mid-May. It wasn't a big surprise since mediterranean-type birds such as the Stilts have been colonising Britain for a few years now. In fact it was almost expected.

3) Another (almost) expected bird was found near Sutton Courteney although it definitely wasn't anticipated to be in July. Luckily we were at home that Sunday morning but only bothered to go and see  the Black-crowned Night Heron for the county tick because we'd already seen the Ossett pair earlier in the year.

4) The most showy bird other than the Lesser Scaup was the smart Grey Phalarope at Farmoor in late September. Initially way out in the middle of F1 on the Saturday, I returned the following morning to see it right next to the causeway and sometimes actually on the concrete embankment. Phalarope's can entertain for hours and use up a lot of memory card space!

Self-found Bird of the Year

The only bird that I can claim as my own with any merit was the Wilson's Storm Petrel and obviously I required a piloted boat to get out into Falmouth Bay to see it. However, it was my find. I spotted it, photographed it and identified it. Easily the rarest bird that I've found too! Just a shame I couldn't get a sharp photo.

I did find a Siberian Chiffchaff on Port Meadow in Oxford but I was there to twitch another one that had already been found by someone else. The bird I found was much paler and probably a better candidate for a pure "tristis" than the original find. I photographed both birds, mine is below, the other on top.

2024 Wish List

As with the opening paragraph of this year review, I finished last years year review with these words;

"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!"

Clearly I failed with that resolution. We did the opposite and surpassed 2022's statistics by some distance. This year we are determined not to fall into the trap of Big Year listing again. My ambition is to reach 450 species of birds seen in Britain, I'm currently on 423. If I get to that total then the next aim will be to get 500.

My thanks to everyone who has looked at my blogs, I know that I'm hopeless at keeping up to date with it and that my posts are often months (and sometimes a year) old, but I enjoy writing them and hope you enjoy reading them.

A Happy New Year to you all!

Stop Press!

Right at the end of 2023 we saw this Baikal Teal in Somerset. The only one I'd seen before was in Yorkshire and wasn't ratified by the rarities committee although I kept it on my own life list. This Baikal Teal has been at Greylake before, two years ago, and was accepted as being truly wild and thus countable. So in effect this bird is the twentieth life tick of the year.