End of Year Review

As usual, my end of review is a fashionably late January one. I find that Christmas is just too busy a time for me to find time to write it. By all measures it was a very good year. Other bloggers have written about their amazing lifer additions for the year and, whilst I was more restrained in what I went for, I too had a good addition to my national life list. But I'll come to that in due course. As usual my review is split into patch, county, national and other stuff.

Port Meadow Patch

As usual, I've done a separate full review of the Port Meadow Patch year which you can read here. So to summarise, it was a record breaking year with a year list total of 148, smashing the previous record of 141. If you look at the headline birds from the year, it makes for amazing reading:

SMEW
MARSH HARRIER

ROCK/WATER PIPIT

WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
WILLOW TIT
SIBERIAN CHIFFCHAFF x 2
LITTLE GULL
MERLIN
KITTIWAKE x 2
WOOD WARBLER
MANDARIN DUCK
SANDWICH TERN
ARCTIC TERN x 2
SHORT-EARED OWL
NIGHTINGALE
CROSSBILL

WOODCOCK
RED-CRESTED POCHARD 

Drilling down into more detail it was a year of two halves: all the action happened in the first half and autumn was completed dead. November and December did provide the Smew and a second Marsh Harrier as well as some more Siberian Chiffchaff action but that was about it. The bird of the year was the American Wigeon though sadly it was only seen by a single observer on the Meadow before it relocated to Otmoor.

American Wigeon courtesy of Thomas Miller - the Port Meadow "Bird of the Year"

Oxon County Birding

Like Port Meadow, the county too had a very good year with an amazing spring purple patch. But things all started earlier than that in March when a drake Lesser Scaup turned up at Farmoor. This was a long overdue county tick for me as the previous easily available one was before my time when I started birding.

The Farmoor Lesser Scaup

As I said above, spring was when it all kicked off. In quick succession the county was graced with a singing Spotted Crake, a single-observer Night Heron, a Black-winged Stilt, a Temminck's Stint, a Montagu's Harrier and a Golden Oriole. Apart from the Night Heron and the Harrier I caught up with all these bird. In particular the Golden Oriole was a county tick that I never thought I'd get. What's more, it was even on show for an extended period of time - quite unprecedented for this species which is normally extremely skulking. You can read up on all of these birds here.

The showy Golden Oriole

 

Having missed the Night Heron in the spring (though I did reckon that I heard it), everyone thought that was it. However in July, it (or another one - there'd been a national influx) turned up at Drayton on a small pond which everyone got to see so that county bogey bird was finally put to rest.

The Drayton Night Heron

Just as for Port Meadow, the second half of the year was completely dead apart from a Pallid Harrier that I missed whilst seeing the Brown Booby (see below). Whilst the official county bird of the year was the Harrier, for me it has to be the Golden Oriole. To get views that good was something I never thought would happen in the county. 

To round off this section, below is the traditional Oxon Birding Review montage set to the usual inappropriate music.

The Oxon Birding Review for 2023

 

National Birding

My national life list is a cherished part of my birding and I'm pleased to say that this year I got 7 shiny new ticks, more than my usual average of 5 which I've had for the last few years since I got my BOU list above 400.  It all started with a King Eider (not a lifer) up at Redcar as part of one of my occasional Durham trips to ferry Daughter #1 to or from her home in the North East. It was hard work picking out the bird at extreme distance in the strong wind but I managed it in the end.

 

The Redcar King Eider courtesy of Damian Money

The next national trip was to Seaford in May for the White-crowned Sparrow (my first lifer). Fortunately I went on the last day it was there and got good views as well.

 

The Seaford White-crowned Sparrow

 

It wasn't until August that I had my next national birding trip, this time to Arne for the long staying Forster's Tern (another lifer) which was nice and straight-forward to connect with. With Honey Buzzard afters, it was a nice trip. 

The Arne Forster's Tern

September was the top month of the year with no less than three trips, all for lifers. The first was a trip over the border into Wales to get a little piece of the amazing American warbler fest that happened in Wales. This was in the form of the second Magnolia Warbler of the Year for the UK, this one in Baglan.

The Magnolia Warbler courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

A few days later there was another warbler twitch, this time down to Sussex for the long staying Aquatic Warbler. This species is usually impossible to twitch so when one set up camp along a river bank and was comparatively easy to see it was a no brainer to go for it.

 

The Aquatic Warbler courtesy of Joe Tobias

The third tick for September was when I had to take Daughter #2 all the way up to Aberdeen for the start of her Master's degree. On the way back down I stopped off at Teeside for the Brown Booby which showed well throughout the time I was there.

 

The Teeside Brown Booby

That was it until November when I first had a little trip over the border into Gloucestershire to see the Purple Heron there. Unfortunately, whereas others had had crippling views of it in previous days, all I got was about 30 seconds before it flew off, never to be seen again.

The Whelford Purple Heron courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

There was one more national twitch that I went on. This was a trip over to Norfolk for the long-staying Pallid Swift, followed by the Canvasback for afters. The swift was easy but the duck was hard though in the end I saw it well enough. Pallid Swift is one of those species that I thought I would probably never see so to have an obliging twitchable bird like this was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The Pallid Swift courtesy of Nick Truby

So that was my national birding. In terms of national bird of the year they were all pretty much "good ticks" to get. However, I guess it has to be the Magnolia Warbler. American warblers are just so stunning to look at compared to our drab birds.

Other Stuff

There was some other stuff that I went for during the year, mostly orchids and odonata. In early spring I saw the Oxon Giant Orchids that had newly been discovered. I guess it will become an annual trip to see them now.

One of the Giant Orchids

There was also a trip up to Scotland in June when I finally caught up with some of the Scottish speciality orchids (Lesser Twayblades and Coralroot) as well as Northern Damselfly. There are still a few more of both orchids and odonata that I need so another trip will probably happen this year as well.

Northern Damselfly

So that was my birding year. It only remains for me to wish all my readers a belated Happy New Year and to a fulfilling birding year ahead for all.