Highlights of 2000 for two birders

2000 was a great year. I reached my highest ever year list with a total of 429 species, 156 of which were lifers. I birded in three countries, USA (two states), India and the UK. The US gave me 111 lifers, 108 of those were in Arizona and 3 in New York. India added 44 new species and I had 1 in the UK.

I also keep a tally of how many species I see in a month. May 2000 was my highest ever total with 268 species seen. The totals for each month were:

January 1st dawned sunny and cold. For weeks there had been an Ivory Gull at Aldeburgh in Suffolk, showing well on the roofs of houses. Helen and I can only blame the new year celebrations for the complete absence of anything even slightly ivory-looking on January 1st. Still, there was always the White-tailed Eagle at Benacre Broad - no there wasn't. At least there was until a few minutes before we got there when it flew off. We waited as long as we could, missed getting Snow Bunting on the way back to the car and headed home vowing never to bother with twitching rarities again. Actually we don't much but now do so even less. Birding in the US is much more fun.

Despite the beating we took on January 1st I still got together the oompf to visit Farlington Marshes in Hampshire and Pagham Harbour in West Sussex on January 2nd (Helen was ill that day). My thinking was that things could only get better since worse was inconceivable! I met my bearded birding chum David Ireland in the carpark and we headed the usual way round the reserve.

Our inestimable birding colleague, Mr David Ireland Esq.

The weather was good as were the birds. Highlights included my first lifer of the year in the form of a Pale-bellied Brent Goose, good views of eight Bearded Tits, Common Snipe (a bird I always like to see), wintering Common Stonechat and Rock Pipit and a lone Ferruginous Duck.

Next we went to Pagham Harbour, starting as ever at the Ferry Pond. Sod all on the Ferry Pond would describe our initial thoughts. The list comprised Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull and Common Moorhen - well worth the 35 mile drive. The harbour itself had to be better.

Common Redshank as ever put in a good show. Not worth mentioning you may think but now the good Mr Ireland lives in Oxfordshire these birds have increased in value a thousand fold. In fact, in Oxfordshire, a Common Redshank makes it on to the local birdline! (David hasn't yet seen one in that mudflat-free county and may never do so.)

Spotted Redshank helped lift the list and the enthusiasm a bit but if things like Common Shelduck, Eurasian Curlew, Common Teal and Eurasian Wigeon weren't year ticks we'd be a bit depressed by now.

Never down for long we trotted off to Church Norton, sure of interesting birds. The usual stuff was about plus wintering European Goldeneye and a Yellow-legged Gull.

Finally we tried Ivy Lake, one of the gravel pits by the roman city of Chichester. Things got better with Ruddy Duck, Black-throated Diver, Common Kingfisher and Green Woodpecker. The diver was our target bird and showed well. It was a lifer for David so he was very happy.

A visit to Helen's sister Carol and her beau Steve in Hull meant we were just in time to see the two Bohemian Waxwings in Hull city centre, sitting on an aerial. The police that drove slowly past as we scoped the birds gave us some strange looks but carried on without asking what on earth we were up to.

Two days later, on January 6th, Helen and I did a tour of some of our favourite sites in the East Riding of Yorkshire area. We started at Bubwith with not a lot (although we did get a decent flock of European Golden-plover on the way). Weldrake Ings was next and yielded male European Goldeneye, a flock of 250+ Fieldfare, three Redwing, one Mistle Thrush, four male and four female Goosander (Common Merganser to my friends in North America), 63 Ruff, a lone juvenile Whooper Swan and several Gadwall.

Next was Blacktoft Sands RSPB Reserve. Can be good, but not always. Can you see what's coming? At least we got a close Common Kingfisher and a Peregrine.

Common Kingfisher

Still determined to get a good start to the year list we did a trip to Martin Mere whilst staying in St Helens with Helen's parents (no, she wasn't named after the town). Martin Mere is a Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve, good for swans, geese and ducks, especially in winter. The year list improved nicely with at least 15 Tree Sparrows on feeders (later scared by a low-flying Merlin), Whooper and Bewick's Swan, Pink-footed Goose, 32 Barnacle Geese, one White-fronted Goose, Common Redpoll, and great but sleeping male Smew. Nearby Mere Sands Wood added Coal Tit, Eurasian Woodcock, lots of Common Treecreepers and a Eurasian Jay.

On the way back to Hove (where we live (south coast, UK, for those who don't know)), we drove down the M40. Just north-west of junction 4, near High Wycombe, we saw a Carrion Crow mobbing a large bird which we first thought was a Common Buzzard (from a great distance and naked eye I might add) but which turned out to be a very much appreciated (by us if not other car drivers) Red Kite.

For each month I also keep a 'Top Ten Birds' list. These aren't necessarily the rarest but the ones I enjoyed most. For example, a few years ago an albino Common Coot was best bird of the month. January 2000's top ten are as follows: