A change this time, with the addition of 'pretty' pictures. Some may even be new to your poor suffering eyes. I was going to do a whole spiel to start with. Maybe a written overview of the year, but I know you just want me to get this over with so you can bang your heads against the nearest solid objects until the pain goes away...
::Fanfare::
Ladies and gentlebirders, here is the Top Ten of 2015.....
10. Hudsonian Godwit.
2015 was not for the most part a year spent zooming far and wide. An exception was burning up to the Levels for one of the 'WOWZER!' birds. You know, the ones you don't really expect to see.
It was a proper twitch too, with a big crowd and the bird hiding in a corner when I arrived. But it came out. Then flew off! Then came back. I even got decent piccies. Plus, one of the best locations to show up in.
9. 600 Avocets.
On the Exe. Together. Breathtaking.
8. White-winged Black Tern.
I'd seen the Farmoor bird [with Black and American Black - hell of a formation!], and missed the Slapton one, so this was a very welcome arrival. The way it showed so insanely well, just motoring up and down the canal at Exminster... Made the mozzies ignorable. Which is saying something.
7. Kingfishers on the Otter.
Getting to show my second niece her first Kingfisher.
6. The Greater Yellowlegs.
Vengeance can be expensive..
Having dipped twice, it was personal. So I went back and got the bugger.
The fact the bird was so unutterably beautiful helped.
5. The Year of the Goshawks.
Never have I seen so many. Not the closest or most spectacular views I've ever had, but they just kept coming. Blessed is the word.
4. OSPREY!
Out that window! In the sunshine! At eye level!!
3. The Great Wild Dove Hunt.
A day that started as a determined attempt at a tricky yeartick, which looked like becoming a failure, then turned into a big twitch, which became a two-in-one-scope-field, then got flooded by Kites, and finally, when I'd given up on my original goal, an enforced detour gave me unlooked-for success just outside Patch bounds [again].
2. Wild Tor.
What is it about that place? If you go there [and it's always a good yomp] you'll find an unassuming collection of low outcrops and lots of boggy rushy ground.
But it is my favourite tor, my favourite spot on the Moor, if not anywhere.
Raptors seem to like it too, though you have to be looking the right way.
1. The Reedrunner.
Beep! Beep!
A worthy winner.
Ok, run, scream, claw at your eyes, whatever. It's over for another year...
;)
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