I had to wait until the 17th February for my first lifer of the year, when the mega alert went off “Common Yellowthroat-Gwent ”. What a bird, and not on some remote island in Scotland!. I arrived on site just after 5am with Mark Payne and we eventually got cracking, views of the bird.
This was the 11th record for Britain, the last one was in 2006, which was a first winter male in Penyrn, Cornwall, on 23rd October, which was found dead.
I visited Lidlington in Bedfordshire on the 13th April, where, after several attempts over the years, I eventually connected with a Lady Amherst's Pheasant
On the 20th May, just as I was getting into bed around 10.30pm, Dan Pointon phoned me to say that a Cream coloured courser had been found on a golf course in Hertfordshire. I got dressed, got in the car and drove through the night, meeting Dan, Josh Jones and Ash Howell at 4.00am and waited for sunrise. We all split up and Josh soon found the bird, it was roosting in the rough on the side of the fairway. God what a bird! and what a grip back, on the Scilly bird of 2004.
Brandon golf course was set in a stunning location, as the sun rose, the Cream coloured courser had roosted on the highest golf course in England.
A tip-off about a Ballion's crake on the 25th May saw me travelling to Malltreath marsh, Anglesey, where I met up with Josh Jones and Mick Frosdick at first light. After hearing the bird constantly calling, it eventually came out of the reedbed and showed really well.
I had just finished a night shift and got into bed when the pager went off on the 29th May “Orphean Warbler, Hartlepool headland, trapped and ringed and will be released at bowling green at 8:45” Holy Shit"! A few quick phone calls and a team assembled, Malc Curtin, Fred Fearne and Ash Powell, and I was dressed again and on my way to Hartlepool. Thankfully the bird was on show as soon as we arrived.
This was only the sixth record for Britain, the last one was in 1991, Cornwall, Saltash, in song, 20th to 22nd May.
Birders on site
Article from the Daily Express
On the 22nd June my good friend Mark Turner phoned me to say that he was watching a Little Swift at New Brighton, which is only twenty minutes from my house. I couldn't believe it, I arrived on site and had this mega bird flying over me, unbelievable afternoon!
What a bird, and thanks to my good friend Phil Woolen for the excellent photographs
All was quiet in the birding world for me until the 5th September when a juvenile Long-billed dowitcher at Lodmoor in Dorset was identified as a juvenile Short-billed dowitcher. I picked Dan up from Bristol on the way down, and after several hours of looking, I refound the bird on a small island, the bird showed really well in the end.
This was only the second record for Britain, which was seen in 1999, Sep 11th to 24th in Aberdeenshire and then the same bird in Cleveland, 29th Sept-30th Oct
Just before Christmas on the 20th, when you thought the lifers had come to an end for another year, news broke that a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak had been found on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly. I caught the plane across and watched the bird feeding, in my good friend's back garden, Joe Pender, as we stood and had a brew and biscuits in his kitchen.
What a perfect Christmas present, having missed the St Agnes bird by one day in 2007 as I was driving home from a five day birding holiday on the Scillies.
What an end to a fantastic year's birding!Roll on 2013!