2021 Patch Review

 Despite its previous status as patch this was the first year I've properly birded there throughout an entire year. Not really knowing what to expect, I set myself a target of 150 species for the year. I know a lot of people frown at lists, but I love them, and find they're a good way to motivate myself to get out, or to explore new corners, when otherwise I might be low and lacking the drive to do stuff. 

As it turned out I finished the year on 153, all of them self-found (not difficult when hardly anyone ever visits your patch, not that I'd be in a big panic to chase anyone else's stuff) with quite a few really annoying omissions, and in hindsight I perhaps could've reasonably targeted 160 (and then been bitterly disappointed). To a small extent this was due to virtually missing October (two weeks in Orkney, followed by no particularly suitable weather to lure me away from the mountains of work), but the main culprit in terms of missing birds was spring seawatching. Aside from the fact that numbers were just dismal (no 3-figure Whimbrel or tern counts for example), I missed entirely Velvet Scoter, Little Gull, Black Tern, Manx Shearwater and Pomarine Skua (although two distant probables of the latter were seen), and might have expected Avocet, Grey Plover and Osprey. Other major omissions over the course of the year included Hobby, Woodlark and Crossbill. 

Whilst spring migration on the ground was pretty disappointing too there were a total of 8 Whinchat (an amazing number for Hants in spring), peaking with 5 on 7/5, and four different reeling Grasshopper Warblers in the period 18-20/4.

Midsummer produced what was undoubtedly patch bird of the year, and in honour of things to come I figured that rather than ask to borrow one of the many brilliant images out there it seems only right to use a one of my own!

The Black Guillemot I found on 19th July was so totally unexpected and out of context it would probably have made top spot even had it not been only the 6th Hampshire record (ironically I was one of only about 8 people to have previously seen one in the county) and present during the hottest weather of the year. That it gained celebrity status by swimming amongst bathers, including birders, for its five-day stay was a bonus. Unfortunately, despite having been seen to catch many fish, it was taken into care starving at the end of its stay, and last I heard it should be released in spring 2022.

The first of many Yellow-legged Gulls was seen on 24th July, and Barton seems to be a semi-reliable location for them: a large (sometimes into 4-figures) gathering of Herring Gulls occurs offshore in autumn. Often they are literally miles out, but sometimes shoals of fish bring them closer, and many are often on the golf course,  and a better birder than me would probably dig out more Yellow-legs than I do, and perhaps that elusive Casp.

A fifth Grasshopper Warbler of the year showed well on 2nd August, with good counts of Yellow Wagtails throughout the month (typical here), and then a red-letter day on 29th, when a Wryneck dropped into bushes right beside me (but was never seen on the deck) and a flock of 15 Cattle Egrets headed west offshore.

All then it all went a bit pants, and to be honest I was glad I'd taken the time out to go to Orkney twice or else the birding in September and October would've been little short of disastrous. Reports from elsewhere, and the general lack of suitable weather didn't suggest I would've missed anything during those absences.

Thankfully a little clear, cold weather at the start of November allowed for a bit of vismig, especially Woodpigeons, with about 33000 heading west over 2nd/3rd. This is one of the highlights of any year, but is far from guaranteed, so it was a relief to get even a couple of days of woodpig passage!

A Snow Bunting heading east on 14th November was nice, and then a final swansong came on 18th December (proving it's always worth persevering) with 3 White-fronted Geese heading east offshore and a point blank ringtail Hen Harrier coming in off.

And that was more or less that for 2021. Like everyone else I'm hoping for a bit more in the way of migration in 2022. Maybe even a proper rarity (and hopefully one that sticks about). But I'll stick with it regardless. There'll be trips out and about, especially as we have acquired a Mazda Bongo that I've realised makes a very good mobile hide 😉

Orkney beckons again in the autumn, maybe Shetland in the summer, and maybe I should put a little more time into the New Forest on my doorstep, but Barton will be my birding bread and butter.

Target for 2022 will be to beat this year's 153.

My Patching History

 So another stab at blogging. Mainly because I find I often can't say all I would like to in a tweet. Last time I started this it ended up descending into too much moaning, so I PROMISE not to do the same. Not too much anyway 😉

My previous attempt was also much less interesting than it could have been (which would definitely have not been very interesting) but thanks to being proud owner (and incompetent user) of a Canon bridge camera these days I will at least now be able to offer some pictures to break the monotony!

See.

Because this exercise is likely to be dominated by my time patch birding I thought I ought to start with a summary of my patching "career".

I haven't always patched, and when I have it's not necessarily always been at the same place. Many years in the not too distant past I've been consumed by county (Hampshire) year listing (and in the more distant past by twitching further afield), but the past few years it's been patch birding, plus proper trips to more distant (often much more distant) places.

My current haunt, Barton-on-Sea in the SW corner of Hampshire, was also my first real patch, birding here semi-regularly during the the late 90s/2000's. I had tried Keyhaven/Pennington as a patch, but really struggled with the ingrained suppression prevalent amongst other regulars there, and the fact that the only way to get close to being part of the inner set was to join in with this, so I gave up on it.

In the mid 2010's however I was tempted back to Keyhaven again, having been frustrated by the number of single observer sightings I was getting at Barton (its geography isn't really suited to attracting or holding on to stuff, mostly it's fly-overs on vismig that provide the quality), and the impression this must have created. It was here that I really threw myself into patching, birding here to the exclusion anywhere else local, but the more I went the more it was obvious that the same old cliquey problems persisted, and although I found a few things that were seen by others, there were still a fair number of single observer records with the headaches they cause. Add in the fact that the mega-popular site is overrun by selfish idiots (including a fair few of the birders), and it only took the 2020 lockdown to break that habit, and I willingly returned to Barton once we were all allowed out again. I have now come to the very liberating realisation that what others think, what is or isn't accepted, is of no importance. I just enjoy birding, especially birding Barton, and so that's what I get on and do . . .