I'm trying to get back into the swing of wildlife watching. After six years of young children and Covid lockdowns I realised I was getting stuck in a rut of doing the same short local walks and rarely seeing anything interesting. I set myself a challenge to beat my previous bird watching record of 103 species in a year and so far this year I'm already up to 83. It's always the last few that are the hardest to find but for the last few years I've struggled to record more than 75 so it's already going better than usual. A Hawfinch or Willow Tit would be very welcome on my list.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Yeah, that listing bug never goes away does it? I made a New Year resolution to chill and not to list this year. Until I heard of a drake Smew on a local lake (extremely unusual here) and that was it - I was off. I'm upto 86 this weekend but just know that by the end of the year I'll end up somewhere between 165 & 175 as per usual. Hitting 200 (which I've never done) would be a big ask without lots of travelling.
Roll on spring migration!
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
175 is very impressive. I've got a lot of learning to do before I can get anywhere near that. I could also do with a spotting scope to help with the tricky ones.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I could also do with a spotting scope to help with the tricky ones.
Definitely. I can't imagine birding life without a scope. I could just do with my old eyesight back!
This image certainly wouldn't win any prizes but would I have known it was a Merlin without the 30X magnification of a scope? I wouldn't have been able to prove I'd seen it without putting my phone camera against the scope's eyepiece.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Cor @pansyface, you got a visit from a queen! I don't know if I'd even recognise one. I thought it'd be too early for them, but it's been very mild though.
I've just looked out the window and it's like a bird playground out there! Last year's 4 starlings have had a big bath every day since they learned how..the sparrows are trying to have a drink but don't like getting splashed, and they love to jump onto a spinning feeder but their favourite one's going too fast, the doves and pigeons are taking no notice at all because there's seed to clear up, and they don't mind getting a shower. 😄 Love 'em!
It was a bit of a dreary afternoon here with low cloud and drizzle. Low cloud is head height at this elevation and it can be quite depressing in the winter. It was mild though and walking through the woods at dusk a bat was hawking up and down the path. Every time it passed by it dipped within a few inches of my head, even orbiting around me now and then. Lovely to watch but it does worry me that I might be attracting flies.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Our robin is getting very bossy. He/she sits on the nearest convenient branch when I'm weeding, generally whispering a little song - but if I uncover a tasty leatherjacket, the robin "chacks" under his breath until I move a few feet away to let him get on with it.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
wild edges said:Lovely to watch but it does worry me that I might be attracting flies.
You are! The flies are attracted to you by your breath CO2 and the bats are taking advantage. We had clouds of pipistrelles doing just that on our last bat walk.
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Roll on spring migration!
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Definitely. I can't imagine birding life without a scope. I could just do with my old eyesight back!
This image certainly wouldn't win any prizes but would I have known it was a Merlin without the 30X magnification of a scope? I wouldn't have been able to prove I'd seen it without putting my phone camera against the scope's eyepiece.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful