New Years Birding Roundup
Each year, Sophie and I (along with some birding friends) kick off the year with a big day of birdwatching. I think we've been doing it since 2022. Normally, if the start of the year coincides nicely with a weekend, we will combine the few days together into a blur of birds. That means that this year, we birded Thursday (1st) as well as Saturday and Sunday (3rd and 4th) and the combined total is sort of treated as one block of New Years birding.
Last year we went to Northumberland for a twitch and whilst it was worth it, I'm glad we stayed more local this year. We have finished the weekend(-ish) with 102 species which is our best tally yet. My favourite birds so far have been: Purple Sandpiper, Yellow-browed Warbler, Firecrest, White-fronted Goose (lifer), Common Gull, Hen Harrier, Avocet and Eider. Quite a few, I know! The conditions have been great and the birds have been performing well.
Since we're working on a Youtube video related to this, we have a lot of video but I tried to balance that with getting some photos too. Here are some of my favourite snaps from those three days.
Purple Sandpiper
Firecrest
Eider
Avocet
Yellow-browed Warbler
Herring Gull
Buzzard
White-fronted Goose
Coot
Hen Harrier