County Year Listing Round-up

Doing a county year list has certainly meant that I've been more attuned to all the sightings within the county and whilst I don't have much past county birding experience against which to compare it does seem to have been a good year for the county. Below are the final scores for the three of us who did the year listing:

Jason Coppock 200 (a new county year listing record)
Myself 195
Tom Wickens 192

County Total 217

Note this was strict BOU except that the American Black Tern was counted as it seems a dead cert for a split. The Azorean Yellow-Legged Gull and the Baltic Gull were not included so if they are split then these totals will be increased. Amazingly, if Jason hadn't left the county so often I calculate that he could have got another five birds which were all twitchable so it just shows what could have been achieved. Please note that the county total (and indeed this entire account) is my unofficial version and not the official total/list. Note also that Tom also achieved the amazing feat of doing twelve month lists all in excess of 100 ticks and mostly on foot!

Below is a list of the rarities and good county birds that we had over the past year.

Rarities
========
Marsh Warbler (Otmoor)
Spoonbill (Otmoor,Port Meadow)
Great White Egret (Otmoor)
Bonaparte's Gull (Farmoor)
White-Winged Black Tern (Farmoor)
(American Black Tern) (Farmoor)
Grey Phalarope (Blenheim Palace,Radley)
Sabine's Gull (Blenheim Palace)
(Baltic Gull) (Didcot/Appleford)
(Azorean Gull) (Didcot/Appleford)
American Wigeon (Sonning Eye)
Temminck's Stint (Abingdon)
Rose-coloured Starling (Forest Hill)
Great Grey Shrike (near Ewelme) - MISSED
Cattle Egret (Dorchester) - MISSED
Pectoral Sandpiper (Radley) - MISSED
Crane (various locations but not twitchable) - MISSED
Pratincole (Otmoor - not twitchable) - MISSED
Hoopoe (supressed) - MISSED
Wryneck (someone's garden - not twitchable) - MISSED
Yellow-browed warbler (not twitchable) - MISSED
Ring-necked Duck - MISSED

Good County Birds
=================
Little Tern
Firecrest
Bar-tailed Godwit
Nightingale
Avocet
Bearded Tit
Red-breated Merganser
(Greenland) White-fronted Goose
Willow Tit
Brent Goose
Shag
Black Redstart
Black-throated Diver
Great Northern Diver
Snow Bunting
Slavonian Grebe
Gannet
Snow Bunting
Kittiwake - MISSED
Long-tailed Duck - MISSED
Black-necked Grebe
Smew
Pink-footed Goose
Iceland Gull
Waxwing
Bittern
Lesser-spotted Woodpecker
Ring Ouzel
Pied Flycatcher (not twitchable) - MISSED
Roseate Tern (not twitchable) - MISSED
Manx Shearwater - MISSED
Mealy Redpoll - MISSED

I've marked as "MISSED" the birds that I didn't personally see. To that list should be added things like little stint, grey plover and water pipit which somehow I didn't get to see



A montage of some of the county birds for 2009

All that remains is for me to wish all readers of this blog a very Happy New Year!