Another year and another year list

Should I year list again?

Some do and some don't and I've wrestled with the year list thing too but I find the chase takes me to places I wouldn't go if I wasn't in the chase. For instance I'll probably visit Capel Fleet, Oare, Dunge, Wallasea in the near future chasing down a few ticks like Gt White Egret, Hen Harrier, Merlin, Tree Sparrow etc and every visit to these places is a joy to me but the chase gives me that added incentive to visit.  Then there's the record keeping by putting the details on Bubo I get to review them year on year which is interesting as you look back at what you saw each year and when was your earliest arrival etc.

So I will be listing again and again it will be public and transparent.

I started today with two garden ticks before I left home with both Robin and Blackbird singing loudly. I picked up the Jims and we parked up in a layby in Epping Forest to nail Tawny Owl for the year list and it took less than a minute to get it. Whilst fuelling the car in Epping I had a singing Song Thrush and then we made our way up the A11 towards North Norfolk our favored day one venue.
A Barn Owl at Runcton added to the list before we arrived at Hunstanton where a brief stop gave us Fulmar plus a couple of gulls and waders.

Thornham allowed us to see Twite again and we watched the Marsh Harriers leave the roost but failed to see any Hen Harrier leave. We added more waders and wildfowl here before moving on to Titchwell where we got Water Pipit, Peregrine, Long Tailed Duck, Slav Grebe plus many other ticks to justify the choice of venue.

We picked up a few more ticks as we drove along the A149 but had to change plans a little as Holkham and Wells were both far too busy to enjoy any real birding. We decided instead to start the journey south stopping at North Walsham for the Dipper then Ludham for the Swans and then finally Long Stratton for the Waxwings. All proved successful and helped bring the day one total to 96.

Black-bellied Dipper. The only time the camera came out of the bag today as we raced around in a day one tick chase.