Time for an update and a wrap of 2022. Things have been slow as the year wound down in the wettest November on record. Overall the year started well but a series of health issues (see title) limited the amount of birding I could do and the walking definitely slowed down and occasionally stopped altogether. Now that I have come to terms with limited mobility I will hopefully be able to work round the issues and might even do a bit more birding from the car or allow more time to walk slower and rest more often when looking for migrants.
WOW added a few species to the list but is well off the 100 target I normally look for. Lack of walking for spring migrants didn't help and the feeders were either empty or down for a lot of weeks so I missed the odd tick there. Photo here shows a frozen WOW in early December. Most species went elsewhere and the coot and shoveler were concentrated in the two areas of open water.
I finished on 88 with a late rush of stuff I should have ticked earlier in the year plus an unexpected female pochard. Glaring omissions included peregrine, little stint, redpoll, bullfinch, reed bunting, blackcap, sedge warbler and chiffchaff. How could I miss a blackcap at WOW!!
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| Female pochard x 3 |
The local North Down patch finally added a red-throated diver, and finished on 67. 70 is the target but look what I missed - jay, siskin, greenfinch, redpoll and Mediterranean gull, - again the main issue was the inability to walk the coast in spring and autumn. I can't remember the last time I walked into Bangor along the coast, never mind through the town to Ballyholme. However a fieldfare on a neighbour's tree was an unexpected surprise. The big news patch wise was finally getting waxwings on the patch - only 5 minutes walk from the house. They spent over a week in a berried tree in Maxwell Road and it was nice to catch up with them along with every birder and photographer in Northern Ireland, plus one from Dublin who made a 5 hour round trip to see them. I took a lot of pictures, so here are three.
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| Hooded crow at sunset |
A wet Christmas week in Bolton added nothing to the year list although the new dormer roof looks promising as I can easily view Richard's feeders and the trees at the bottom of his garden. Santa brought a nice tripod which will stay in England and help Bolton birdwatching. I had nice views of treecreeper and nuthatch in the poplar tree but no woodpecker this time.
2022
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