My year list for 2011 was slightly better than last year, I managed to see 267 species in Britain and I had 4 lifers plus an armchair tick (Siberian Stonechat) so I’m creeping along ever closer to the big 500! My highlights of the year were trips to Speyside, Scotland in April; Shetland in September & Scilly in October; White-winged Scoter twitch to Aberdeen in June; the White-throated Robin at Hartlepool in June; Northern Water Thrush & Scarlet Tanager on Scilly in October and finding a Dusky Warbler on Scilly. A Western Bonelli’s Warbler in Derbyshire was a surprise county […]
My 28th consecutive trip to the “Sacred Isles”, the Isles of Scilly. What a week – 2 lifers; 3 “Yankie” passerines and 5 “Yankie” waders, plus a self found Dusky Warbler. Plenty of padders helped us to achieve 101 species for the week. Arriving on Saturday 22nd October, I was anxious to get the Northern Waterthrush, a North American warbler, very rare to Britain. A new bird for me and the first tick on Scilly for a number of years. Plenty of extremely rare birds for Britain to go for – such as Wilson’s Snipe, Upland Sandpiper and Olive-backed Pipit. […]