Got up for my first proper visit to the patch at Boulmer today after some work early on. There seems to be a big push nationally for birders to do a #localbigyear: as my last proper year in the UK was spent pretty much doing that around the Boulmer area, I figured I can buy into it. I'm currently just making the odd work trips up from Lincoln, but should be living in the area long term from February, which I'm really looking forward to: it's a fantastic area with some great locals which is a fantastic mix.
The rules seem to be fairly lax for the tallying, which is nice and easy, so I'll just stick to the standard Boulmer area which I'll dig out at some point (it's definately smaller than a 5 km ring anyway.) Having reached 195 in my last concerted effort in 2020, I'm going for the almost certainly way too optimistic total of 205. The previous total was probably a county record for a single observer, but figuring I have 2 extra months, know the area, and won't just be making odd visits in the Autumn, why not go for it?
It's never that good to go full tunnel vision and look for certain species too much, but I do have a few find targets for the year, some more doable than others: a BB at Boulmer, Ring-billed Gull, 10+ Casps, Bee-eater and Great Shear. Of course, there's loads still to go at for the Boulmer list too, but the prior are all doable I reckon.
Anyway, onto today. It was quiet, as you'd expect on the stillest January day ever. A few flocks of Pinkfeet were moving both North and South and some gulls were blogging about, but the sea was absolutely dead.
There were two highlights though, firstly a real patch scarcity in the form of a Red-necked Grebe which I picked up coming N towards Seaton Point, off of which it decided to sit for a while before continuing. Only my second at Boulmer, and always unpredictable, so a good one to chalk off so early.
The second bit of quality came in the form of a Merlin chasing a Dunlin, again off Seaton Point. The poor thing was getting hounded not only by the Falcon, but also gulls joining in, and I really did want this one to make it after getting outnumbered, but it wasn't to be.
A total of 62 so far, all to play for. Notables below:
- Pinkfeet - 140 N, 74 S
- Mute Swan - 2 S & 2 Seaton Point (different)
- RB Merg - 1 blogging
- GC Grebe - 1 Seaton Point
- RN Grebe - 1 N
- Med Gull - 1 ad Longhoughoon Steel
- Stonechat - 6 dotted about
Nice start Dan. Give me a shout with Ring billed Gull though, Ive not had one in the county at all... :)
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