It's 2016 Again...

Yeah, you knew it was inevitable.


I've decided to change things a bit this year, so instead of a Top Ten I'm just going to put up a few [define 'few'...] highlights and we'll see how it goes.


2016 saw some gratuitous twitching on my part, including going to see [that's see, not going after a dip] the same bird twice. Yeah, I'm talking Dalmatian Pelican here. So to my first highlight...


I Tawt I Taw Some Wicked Birds

The pelican had crossed the border, and as a self-respecting Devon birder, I had to go and add it, maybe even see it on the deck? The small matter of getting even with not horribly dipping seeing a Caspian Tern was also a factor. Add on a Glossy Ibis, a posse of Spoonbills and who knows what else around and where's the question?
Turning up after a vexing trip to find not only both my targets were there but in the scopes of some handy Hants birders was.. sweet. Ok, that's something of an understatement, especially after the whole 'last Caspo Tern thing...'. Eventually catching up with the Ibis at very close range [plus the most confiding Redshanks I've ever seen] was pretty good too. Then there was cake. Brilliant day, brilliant place.


Photogenic Rarities

Before the Blue Rock Thrush there was the Desert Wheatear - not even a Devon Tick but well worth looking at! - and before that the Lesser Grey Shrike [what a bird!]. While varyingly elusive, all [eventually] posed to show off their loveliness. Ok, the BRT stayed mobile and up on the rooftops mostly, but it was there and so very pretty.



Less Obliging Rarities

The Black Hole Least Sand was a lovely little bird, but not easy to photo [at least when I was there..]. Blyth's Reed? Blyth's blur in the middle of a bush [it was very cute, though]. Even the Blagdon Blyth's was a bit..  mobile.
Speaking of massive things impossible to see... We cannot speak of Devon's birds without the Bird Of The Year.. Yup, Lammy the Lammergeier. There, I've mentioned it, and out of respect to [almost all of] you, I'll say no more.


REVENGE!

Kentish Plover. On. My. List.
Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa............


And Stone Curlew, too.


Patch Joy.

Watching Pegs insecting.. [I could hardly believe it] and beating up poor innocent Buzzards for fun. :)
Then there was the Wryneck. Actually sitting for photos. Not great photos, true, but you could see what it was without prompting.
And a multi-second Great Spotted Woodpecker on my feeders! Woo!


All The Birds

By which I mean.. All the big shears at 'Gwarra. All the Ospreys on the Exe. All the Cattle Egrets dodging the Teigngrace muckspreader. All the Great White Egrets at Blagdon. Wowzer.


The Grace of The Goddess

The Mardle valley is one of those places. It was with a tiny grain of hope that I'd picked that bit of the Moor, but really I had no expectation. Thrushes were the order of the day, and it was a glorious day anyway. So, I was there and then.. so was the Hen Harrier. For minutes. It was... well, like the title says.

Magic.

And that was my highest light of the year. Earlier I would have thought it would be the Kentish - it was even photo'd..by me!!! - which was a moment of ecstasy, true, but it was the ecstasy of relief and revenge and then what a bird. The Hen Harrier was joy, pure unadulterated bliss.



::Sigh::


You may possibly be aware that a lot of people have said how much they hated 2016. Personally, I disagree. Yes, bad things happen, people die [it's waiting for us all], but not everything was awful. Anyway, the world was supposed to end in 2012, so we're already 4 years to the good.

Smile! :D


Be Seeing You..