An early morning start and a several hour drive to find what sometimes feels like a needle in a haystack after reading about a possible sighting of a bird is not everyone's cup of tea, and that's fine, and if you add up all the bad days, they will always heavily outweigh the good ones, but that's what makes the good days seem so memorable. Below is a round-up for 2022 including some of our memorable highlights, with best wishes to all for 2023 and a happy new (birding) year. Below Bohemian waxwing - Sunderland.
January and the year began with a twitch over in Lancashire for a Belted Kingfisher along the river Darwen. Access to the river was through private land and the farmer was charging but after paying a £10 and crossing a field knee deep in mud we managed to come away with a few images of this rare visitor making the trip well worth the effort. Other highlights were 300 Brambling in Bawtry, 200 Whooper in Branton, 10 Hawfinch at Rufford Abbey, 2 Siberian Chiffchaff at Wombwell Ings, 1 American Wigeon and 2 Smew at Idle Valley.
February we took a trip to Fuerteventura, Canaries, staying close to the airport we hired a car and was able to reach most birding sites within an hour. A great place for African desert birds and a fantastic destination for some winter sun, highlights included Red-billed Tropicbird, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Red-vented Bulbul, Cream-coloured Courser, Houbara Bustard, Hadada Ibis and the Fuerteventura Chat to mention a few.
March brought with it a noticeable step towards springtime and the breeding season, so with this in mind we headed for Nottinghamshire making the most of a brief window when Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers actively seek out a mate and pair up before excavating potential nests sites. With only around 1500 pair in the UK we were fortunate to catch up with several of our smallest and rarest resident Woodpeckers.
April and a Black-browed albatross returned again to Bempton Cliff's settling amongst a colony of Gannets.
Puffin, Kittewake, Fulmar, Razorbill and Gulliemot were also back in good numbers and always great so see.
Little owl, Pink-footed goose and Garganey were reported at Adwick Washlands while over at Padley Gorge Pied flycatcher, Spotted flycatcher and Redstart were back along with several Cuckoo noted at Rabbit Ings.
May and one of the main highlights of the year, our birding trip to Lesvos where we recorded 164 individual species including Bee-eater, Roller, Krüper's nuthatch, Honey buzzard, Rüppell's warbler, Scops owl, Little owl, Golden oriole, Olive tree warbler, Middle spotted woodpecker, Nightingale, Little bittern, Short-toed snake eagle, Spotted crake and Montagu's harrier to mention just a few.
June and Potteric Carr had a pair of breeding Black-winged Stilts, a first for Yorkshire with the pair going on to successfully fledge 4 young while a trip over to East Yorkshire gave us great views of Bittern, Water rail and Spoonbill. At Sprotbrough flash, 2 pairs of Kingfisher were busy having several broods and a week in Suffolk gave us Stone curlew, Dartford warbler, Turtle dove, Little tern, Bearded reedling and Woodlark. By the end of the month we had the privilege to be taken to see Nightjars, many thanks to Paul Coombes for the invite.
July and the arrival of a Turkestan shrike (Red-tailed) meant another trip to Bempton Cliffs, returning back for a Caspian tern on Slyanes lane. In Derbyshire, Short-eared owls were showing regularly while at Denaby Ings a Juvenile Purple heron dropped in but was gone the following day and another trip to see the Nightjars revealed two chicks which went on to successfully fledge. At Potteric Carr the Black-winged stilts chicks were showing well and almost taking flight, so we headed back to see them once more before they left the reserve.
August and a Whooper began to take up residence on Denaby Ings along with several visiting Spoonbill and Great white egret. Over at Sprotbrough a Whinchat was recorded while over in West Yorkshire we had some fantastic views of several Long-eared owls in some great late afternoon sunshine.
September arrived and we headed out to Crete for a 2 weeks birding trip, highlights here included Eleonora's falcon, Griffon vulture, Temminck's stint, Little stint, Red-backed shrike, Woodchat shrike, Yellow wagtail, Redstart, Alpine swift, Spotted flycatcher, Sardinian warbler, Wryneck, Blue rock thrush, Bee-eater, Golden Oriole, Serin, Woodlark, Whinchat and Hoopoe.
Back home we took a trip to Ecclesfield Dam after hearing reports of two Osprey there, one of the birds had the end of its left R6 tail feather missing and was seen the most while the other bird, a young female was seen less often. On the 26th of September this young female re-located to Sprotbrough flash, remaining there for the next 40 days before finally beginning her migration on the 4th of November. Image below was taken at Ecclesfield showing the Osprey with partially missing R6 tail feather diving, taken during September 2022.
October and the Osprey at Sprotbrough was roosting at Fowlsyke flash and mainly fishing on Sprotbrough flash, eating her catch on the Osprey stand opposite the Heron hide, other sightings on the reserve included a Garganey in eclipse, 4 Great white egret and a Barn owl. A few visits to the Spurn area gave us sightings of Barred warbler, Jack snipe, Spotted redshank, Merlin, Snow bunting, Firecrest and 4 Cranes.
November and on a birding trip to Cyprus we recorded 106 species, highlight of which included Red-footed falcon, Bonelli's eagle, Northern goshawk, Long-legged buzzard, Eleonora's falcon, Cyprus warbler, Stone curlew, Mustache warbler, Penduline tit, Greater sand plover, Golden plover, Zitting cisticola, Spur-winged lapwing, Osprey, Baillon's crake, Finsch's wheatear, Little bittern, Blue rock thrush and Bluethroat.
An influx of Bohemian Waxwing was predicted this winter which would see large numbers visiting the UK in a phenomenon that occurs once every few years, the prospect of such an irruption was something we were looking forward to seeing. A twitch up to Sunderland in November provided us with our first sighting of the year where we had great views of 29 Waxwings on Rowan berries at a residential care home.
December and on another trip to Cornwall visiting family we had sightings of Black redstart, Mistle thrush, Crossbill, Redwing and Fieldfare. Closer to home at Rossington tip we noted Short-eared owl and Barn owl. Over at Thrybergh we had sightings of several male and female Goldeneye along with sightings of a male first winter Greater Scaup. Also at Thrybergh were good numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare and ending the year as it began at Rufford Abbey Country Park we had great views once more of Hawfinch.
All images © Martin Roper 2022
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