The 'Boro continues to be hard work!

....who's idea was this?

Flogging Middlesbrough is proving at least as difficult as I could ever imagine, though Saturday afternoon added a few.

The morning had seen me flogging Stewart Park and Hemlington Lake to death from early doors, adding Stock Dove for my efforts, before taking a break over the river to see some real birds.... Highlights being Marsh Harrier (Cleveland's first over-wintering bird) and this obliging LEO..

Back to the 'Boro for the afternoon and an exploration of Eastfields Farm. Hoping to see Barn and Little Owls here when I get some dawn/dusk motivation so this was more of a reccie...

Excellent place though... the rough pasture round the farmhouse producing Yellowhammer, Reed Bunt and Tree Sparrow and a large Holly tree attracting all five thrushes. A flock of Golden Plover got another potentially tricky species out of the way and week two ended with the total stretched to a massive 62! ....

... suspect it's going to get really difficult now.... bring on April!

Year listing....

Many years ago, I used to love year listing within Cleveland... friendly competitive fun, motivation to get out birding and a challenge!

Of course, sea-watching at Hartlepool every night in autumn and twitching Boulby for every semi-rarity racks up the miles and would be a very expensive game to play these days. So....

Cleveland is neatly split into four unitary boroughs, of which I live in Middlesbrough. A perfect solution for 2012's motivational problems :)

It has its pluses... will cost next to nothing and nobody's 'done' Middlesbrough before, so I'm bound to set a record. However, there's a reason why it's not been done... it's crap!

Compared to the other three boroughs, there's no marsh and no coastline, so the expected number of species will be less than half of any of the other three. Still - I've said I'll do it now!

End of week 1 and total stands on a whopping 46 lol. Lads doing each of the other three are already well into three figures.

Highlights so far are Ring-necked Parakeet and Kingfisher..... regular updates to come.