JOE WOODMAN WILDLIFE
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
  • VIDEO & AUDIO
  • ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
  • CONTACT

Natural History Blog

2023's Birding

1/1/2024

0 Comments

 
2023 was my best year of birding so far, seeing 197 species in total (21 more than the previous year), including a massive 36 lifers! This is reflective of a few things: more time spent birding local patches; a few trips to new places; and a generally increasing love for knowing what birds are around me wherever I go.

The first of these (birding local patches) was something relatively new to me. I focussed on an area which I've posted about previously - a 2km squared patch in the northeast of the city of Oxford. I visited this site over 100 times during the year, made easy by the fact that I walk through part of it on my way to and from work. Highlights include my daily visits after fieldwork in the spring to a small flood, which luckily didn't dry up until May allowing for a few interesting waders which dropped past on their migrations (including lapwing, green sandpiper and common sandpiper). Also, a few lucky flyovers from species such as yellow wagtail and oystercatcher in the spring, and brambling and merlin in the winter, brought my tally up. Significant flooding in the north along the river Cherwell allowed for a shelduck and great white egret (the last two species seen on the patch before the new year!). However, the main highlight for me was the totally unexpected barn owl which flew off a roosting site in September, I'll be sure to keep my eyes out for it in the future as this is a relatively rare species to see within the city. In total, I saw 97 species on this site - not bad for a non-coastal urban patch!

Visiting new places both within and outside the UK was also a great way to see new species. A trip with the research group to Norfolk in February was made special by seeing tonnes of brent geese, pink-footed geese and whooper swans across a number of sites; shore lark at Holkham bay; and a long-eared owl and snow bunting at Cley. I took an Easter break with my family to the Cairngorms, which featured one of my birding highlights of the year with a pair of golden eagles on my birthday; and a post-field season camping trip to Gloucestershire was a great opportunity to see the returning bluethroat. Visiting my girlfriend's family in Paris meant I was able to see some species rarely seen in the UK, including a black kite along a main road just outside of the city, as well as short-toed treecreeper and middle spotted woodpecker in a large metropolitan park. My annual family trip to Scilly was fantastic this year, with the pelagics sea trip bringing Wilson's storm petrel and three new species of shearwater. Finally, a trip to Copenhagen with my sisters in December included a short walk around Naturecenter Amager, where I saw my first ever rough-legged buzzard.

2024 will be an interesting year. I'll be finishing off my PhD and am unsure of where I'll be going after that - but I'm excited to see what this uncertainty will lead to (both bird-related and bird-unrelated!).

Top 10 2023 bird moments:
1. Pair of golden eagles on 8th April (my birthday!) undergoing pairing behaviour from the summit of Creag Choinnich in the Cairngorms.
2. Small flock of shore lark glistening in winter sunlight after a long walk trying our best to find them on 25th Feb at Holkham Bay.
3. A beautiful bluethroat posing on a post to a small group of birders on 16th June at WWT Slimbridge.
4. The wood warbler with its ridiculously beautiful song trilling and showing well on the 29th April in Wytham Woods after a check of my nest-box round.
5. Finding a common sandpiper on the 23rd May after many daily trips to the local Marston Meadows flood.
6. A pogo-ing Wilson’s storm petrel dashing past the boat on the 24th July on a pelagics seabird trip off Scilly.
7. A couple of beautiful singing woodlark on the 26th February in south-east Oxfordshire.
8. An eery spotted crake singing its unusal drip-drop like calls at dusk on the 29th April at RSPB Otmoor.
9. The sudden appearance of a Goshawk when watching one of the data collection drone flights on 21st March at Wytham Woods.
10. Ringing my first firecrest on 28th September caught at Portland Bird Observatory.
Wood warbler
File Size: 2850 kb
File Type: wav
Download File

Spotted crake
File Size: 726 kb
File Type: wav
Download File

Woodlark
File Size: 2895 kb
File Type: wav
Download File

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Joe Woodman

    A blog of my ideas, photography and research of the natural world. 

    Archives

    April 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    July 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    May 2018
    July 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
  • VIDEO & AUDIO
  • ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
  • CONTACT