Funny how a simple advancement of the calender by a day creates that frisson of excitement unique to birders !
I headed to 'The Warren', as good a place as any to start a new year list, alongside my Upton Warren Year list, which had ended on a high with a lifer and a reserve tick not 24 hours previously. However, for me, it was really about being out and birding. I was not going to sweat on trying to assemble 50 ticks in the hour or so I had decided to bird. For one, I'm simply not that accomplished, I admire the ability of more experienced birders to hoover up those commoner species, seemingly able to smell an approaching Mipit or Grey Wag, ID it, point to it, and write it down while I am still removing the rain caps from my bins.Pace myself, concentrate on improving my skills, god knows they need it.Resolution, to find more myself.
So I mooched around the Moors side for an hour, trying to see every bird properly, as if for the first time..Ok, I was a bit tired from the New Year celebrations, so I scoped the feeder's on the far side to tick off Reed Bunting and Green Finch..no crime in that though is there ?
And what should I spot flying in and plopping itself down on the main pool around 12.10 for 5 minutes ? Only a Great Black Backed Gull, a really fresh looking brute, the white feathers looking Persil washed.I go a year not seeing one there, then I start tripping over them !
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