Summary December 2016

Summary December 2016

Species this month =94

New Species added to 2016 Year List in December= 4

Waxwings at St Asaph 14 & 15, Hawfinch at Llanbedr-y-Cennin 30th, Black-throated Thrush at St Asaph 30th, Chough at South Stack 30th

New UK Life List Birds In December= 1

Black-throated Thrush at St Asaph 30th

Running Total for the 2016 UK So Far = 200

Birding Days Out

With the birding group finishing for the year on the 10th January, we were restricted to trips out on our own and with a desire to reach 200 birds this year, and still having four to go to get there, my attention turned to trying to get new birds. I had hoped a visit to Woolston Eyes on the 10th December might turn up the Green-winged Teal that is there but it didn’t; neither did we get Ruddy Duck which we sometimes get there, but usually earlier in the year. We did have another go at getting to north Wales between the 14th and 16th December taking in visits to Shotwick Boating Lake and FIelds where we got nice views of Bewick Swans, Connah’s Quay Nature Reserve where we got Twite, St Asaph where we got a year tick of Waxwings. We also went to Caerhun to St Mary’s Churchyard looking unsuccessfully for Hawfinch and Pensarn where we did not see Surf Scoter. Little Orme proved very interesting but no new birds were seen there. A stop at Riverbank Road on our way back did give us great views of an aduklt male Hen Harrier – I haven’t seen an adult male for quite some time. Over the three days we saw 67 species.

It was frustrating not to add more species to my year list on this trip apart from the Waxwings. It was also disappointing that we had failed to see any Hawfinches and to top all that, when we were at St Asaph on our way back home someone had seen and pohotographed a female Black-throated Thrush right where we had been and just at the same time as we decided to leave – 9.30am. This would have been a life “tick” not just a “year tick” so I was very disappointed with some aspects of our trip but happy with others. We had a good time anyway.

The frustration of these trips was more than made up for on the 30th of December when we had another day out in North Wales. Here we got birds number 198, 199 and 200 on my 2016 year list. They were, in order, Chough at South Stack, Hawfinch at Llanbedr-y-Cennin and Black-throated Thrush at St Asaph ! What a mega day and it was deeply satisfying that the 200th bird was the bird I had dipped on at St Asaph on our previous visit – a “life tick” Black-throated Thrush and really good views at that. What an end to the month – and the year.

Birding Group

The last birding group outing of the year was to WWT Martin Mere and whilst it was pleasant enough and we did get nice views of Marsh Harriers, there wasn’t reallt that much there. The star bird of the day was the Tawny Owl that was roosting in the tree ( very near the top on the left fork) on the opposite side of the path from the Kingfisher Hide. We went to the usual pub in Rufford for lunch and we worked on a schedule for next near and this was finalised by Dave and David and can be seen here.

Garden

The month was very variable sometimes being warm enough to keep the fire off in the sittting room of an evening. Winds were almost non-existant some days. In the garden we had a Mistle Thrush on the 1st, a Nithatch on the 9th and a male Blackcap on the 11th. As wella s these we have some very hunglry Starlings and lots of Blue Tits. The Goldfinch numbers are rising nicely and generally the garden is quite busy now it is only light between 8am – 4pm.