Saturday was spent in the Lee Valley, with excellent encounters with muntjac and fox not much birdwise. A few highlights in the garden over the weekend, the first ever siskin a pair of mallard and a badger.
23-24th March
North Wales was not the best place to be during the blizzard, but we made it despite the conditions, but wildlife watching was near impossible, a few chough several red kites the best I could muster. The submerged forest at Ynyslas beach however was easier to locate despite the low tide not being very low a good section of the forest was exposed. Best mammal a melanistic rabbit.
17th March
A day down south mostly for other reasons but managed a bit of wildlife watching. I stated in Poole but the hoopoe eluded me in not really hoopoe weather, but a couple of sika deer were more accommodating at Arne. The main wildlife event was a visit to the Great bustard project, 5 bustards were around, a few roe deer were seen on the drive home.
15th March
I have finally caught the small mammal inhabiting my garage it was a bank vole and I have let him live there until he wants to move on.
7th March
Very little action on the toad crossing but four species of amphibians in the last couple of nights was noteworthy.
1st March
Wow a garden tick, despite being a long way from woodland a treecreeper has been visiting the garden in the last couple of days and I got a photo of it today.
A bat hibernacular visit produced three new species all new for the year, very very nice.
24th February
An afternoon trip back to Thetford and I was quickly onto the two young otters but they went for a sleep for a while, not much else doing apart from a flyby kingfisher. Eventually one of the otters started to fish and I followed it for a few hours, eventually it came on land near Wilkinson and had a major argument with another otter, not one I had seen before. I lost my otter but had the new one for a short while before it went to ground. I went in search of brown rats and quickly found one in the area suggested by a local. I picked up the otter again and had it until it went to ground. The drive home produced a couple of muntjac in the brecks and a couple more near home and also a couple of brown hares on the edge of the village.
23rd February
After a quiet week and despite my terrible cold and cough I headed to a very cold Eastbourne where a confiding bonaparte's gull has been in residence. On arrival there was no sign, but after about 2 hours it suddenly appeared and showed very nicely. I headed to Dungness via Walland Marsh where I quickly located a flock of Bewicks swans and a couple of tundra bean geese. Dungness was a mixed bag with no sign of the Glaucous gull at the point, or the snow bunting at Littlestone but I had to give up after a short look as I felt so bad. The black throated diver was at Lade GP and I did locate a great white egret and a couple of smew on the ARC pit before heading home early, totally exhausted.
17th February
We were off the ferry and quickly off to the harbour mouth where at least 5 bottlenosed dolphins before setting off back over Glenshee, the cloud and mist was low so no ptarmigans, but we had a nice flock of snow buntings, red grouse, red deer and a rather out of place song thrush. A quick stop at Loch of the Lowes for some rather mice red squirrels before the trek back south, top trip.
16th February
Lerwick was cold and dreary and heavy rain quickly arrived as about 20 or so people searched the few plantations near Collafirth, a mountain hare all we could muster for our efforts. We continued our search when news came from the next plantation that the pine grosbeak had been located and despite the torrential wind and rain we all had good views. Time flew by while we watched it and as it moved on we headed off. A quick tour of Sullom Voe did not produce anything of note and we arrived into Scalloway along with several other crews to search for gulls. Little doing apart from a brief glaucous. Lerwick was a little better but the weather certainly was not, here we had an iceland gull and at least 3 glaucous gulls. A quick shop for beer and chips before boarding the ferry back to Aberdeen.
15th February
James Hunter and I headed north and arrived in the Largo area just after dawn for our first stop on the way to Shetland. Ruddon's point quickly gave up the drake surf scoter which showed quite nicely with good numbers of common and velvets A few slav grebes, red throated divers and long tailed ducks were also present. Up over Glenshee where the skiers were present in force so we could not really stop but further down the valley a couple of dippers and some red grouse were located. Rattray Head quickly gave up the very long staying desert wheatear in some nice sunshine. Peterhead did not yield any white winged gulls which was our last stop before getting the overnight ferry to Lerwick.
9th February
With the good reports of otters at Thetford, and the black bellied dipper, it was not a hard choice where to go. I was the first car in the small car park and 10 mins later I had my first otter working its way up the river showing very nicely down to a few feet, but a part of the river is not accessible by the mill and it was lost after about 30 mins. All the locals kept telling me about their encounters and sightings seem almost daily right in the centre of town. I could not do better than that so I popped to see the black bellied dipper which was also showing very nicely although the setting was quite dark. I wandered back down the river to the shops to find something to eat, but a group of the public and another photographer were watching two otters again showing amazingly well and we followed them for well over an hour maybe longer as time flew by. There were some amazing sights of them catching fish and coming ashore to eat a few feet from us. After a quick bite to eat I headed up to Sculthorpe Moor for a couple of hours, well over a hundred brambling the highlight, but siskin, lesser redpoll and water rail were alos seen as well as the bank voles. Heading for home I drove round the brecks in search of reeve's pheasants and found three nice males. There were plenty of hares, roe deer and muntjac although it was too dark to photograph the muntjac. A top day rounded off with of course with chips!
2nd February
A few hours out and about locally where the Wimpole hawfinch was the first port of call, and it did show, but the local Reeve's pheasants did not although a hybrid and a white pheasant did. A quick look at a birdless Fowlmere, half a dozen species only but two jack snipe worth the effort.
9th January
A brief morning look at Folwmere, a few muntjac and the kingfisher but little else.
5th January
A few hours in the Lee Valley, Connaught Water even after dawn was in darkness, pairs of pintail and egyptian geese and Mandarin's galore. A quick look round 70 Acres lake nothing of real note. I baited an area and had the usual grey squirrels and common birds, goldcrest and sparrowhawk the highlight. But the stars were two muntjac's and adult and a youngster who showed amazingly well, coming too close to focus the camera for long periods. A couple of bank voles showed nicely late on before I headed home.
Happy New year
1st January
Fowlmere at dawn was the order of the day, blackbird the first bird of the year on the way. Fallow deer became the first mammal of the year. I had a few hours on the reserve before the Spirngwatchers and families arrived and in that time I managed kingfisher and bittern as well as muntjac, grey squirrel and mink before I just had to leave. I stopped in on the Foxton waxwings on the way home which were a treat as allways.
I thought 60 UK mammal species (my total for last year) was something that could not be topped, but somehow I managed to exceed last years total with 63 species seen in the UK during 2012 in what was an amazing year.
1. Hedgehog
2. Common Shrew
3. Pygmy shrew
4. Water Shrew
5. Greater horseshoe bat
6. Lesser horseshoe bat
7. Whiskered Bat
8. Brandts Bat
9. Natters Bat
10. Bechsteins Bat
11. Daubentons Bat
12. Serotine Bat
13. Noctule Bat
14. Barbastelle Bat
15. Pipistrelle Bat
16. Soprano pipistrelle Bat
17. Nathusius's Pipistrelle Bat
18. Brown Long eared Bat
19. Red Squirrel
20. Grey Squirrel
21. Bank Vole
22. Field Vole
23. Water Vole
24. Wood Mouse
25. Yellow Necked Mouse
26. Harvest Mouse
27. House Mouse
28. Hazel Dormouse
29. Edible Dormouse
30. Brown Rat
31. Red Fox
32. Pine Marten
33. Stoat
34. Weasel
35. Polecat
36. Badger
37. Otter
38. Mink
39. Red Deer
40. Roe Deer
41. Sika Deer
42. Fallow Deer
43. Muntjac Deer
44. Chineese Water Deer
45. Rabbit
46. Brown Hare
47. Mountain Hare
48. Beaver (tick)
49. Common Seal
50. Grey Seal
51. Wild Boar
52. Minke Whale
53. Common Dolphin
54. Harbour Porpoise
55. Risso's Dolphin (tick)
56. Humpback Whale
57. Long Finned Pilot Whale
58. White Sided Dolphin (tick)
59. White Beaked Dolphin
60. Bottle Nosed Dolphin
61. British Primitive Goat
62. British Wild Sheep (tick)
63. Feral Horse / Pony
Black tailed Prairie dog (Escaped - not counted)
A cracking year with 4 ticks in the 63 species seen, 54 photographed or videoed. October was the most prolific month with 30 species seen.
Highlights
Wild Sheep and the amazing trip to St Kilda to see them and seeing White sided dolphins for the first time as well.
An amazing Minke whale and corking pine marten in Scotland and the beavers were excellent both the Tay and Knapdale populations.
Photography
Photography went well with some great bat photos, minke whale, beaver, badger, wild boar, pine marten, water and pygmy shrews.
Trips
Ermine and whalesin Aberdeenshire, Long finned Pilot whales in Forth and Wild Sheep on St Kilda were the trips of note for mammals.
Further afield, Estonia produced Russian flying squirrel, Norway for musk ox, Spain for pyrennean chamois, Belgium for amazing stone martens and Poland for wolves.
2012 Summary
Another busy year 18 species of herp, the highlight Aesculapian snake the first I have seen since 2007, the poor weather affected insect species with only 30 butterfly species including some of the northern subspecies and finally a monarch, odonta only 23 species and nothing of real note. Another poor birding year with only 235 species seen and 158 of those in one day during the bird race. Some nice new species as well but not very many, a Spanish sparrow and common yellowthroat started off the year Baillon's crake in the middle and finished off with an Eastern olivaceous warbler. Hope 2013 will be better.
