On the birding front it's been relatively quiet year after an amazing 2017 which saw no fewer than eight new species added to the patch list, no new species were added in 2018 - the first year that's ever happened.
A half decent seawatch which added red-necked grebe, little auk and grey plover to the list made up for an otherwise uneventful autumn. With no easterlies until late November, there were no falls of migrants to speak of and very little passage which meant more common passage migrants like redstart, pied and spotted flycatcher and whinchat weren't recorded.
Other passerine species missing from the 2018 list include yellowhammer, bullfinch, greenfinch, snow bunting, and tree pipit (usually seen on viz mig). It was quite a good year for waders with only temminck's stint and jack snipe missing from the likely candidate list.
We've ringed less birds than any previous year this year as well. The 'beast from the east' storm in April did for many of the resident passerines, completely wiping out wrens with no pairs recorded this year. We had very few chances to ring in the autumn because of the weather. We did manage to ring some storm petrels on the beach and had the nice surprise of a Leach's petrel too.
The winter has been unseasonably mild again, with temperatures in the mid-teens on some days. This has meant species usually associated with cold weather haven't been recorded, like yellowhammer and red-legged partridge.
The patch bird list for 2018 was 167, which is an average total based on the last few years but well behind the 174 totals from 2107 and 2016.
It'll be late January before I'm back on the patch so Happy New Year to you all and thanks for reading.
Here's some photos from the last few days of the year.
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| Cormorant in flight |
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| A group of whooper swans in flight over the patch |
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| Carrion crow |
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| Mute swan taking off from the big pool |
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