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.

2011 Highlights...

... as the year draws to a close, time to reflect on the highs of the last 12 months and to wonder what lies in store for 2012.

Eleven new birds is a decent return, collected mainly over trips to Morocco (twice) and the Azores... two of my favourite places for birding.

Highlight of our first trip to Morocco, for me at least, was Cricket Longtail, only recently discovered in the country along the road to Assouerd, a fantastic birding area.

Other ticks on this trip were Royal Tern and Pied Crow but, despite a lot of effort, we couldn't locate any Kelp Gulls at Knhiffis Lagoon - hence the second trip there in June!

The most productive trip of the year was my October visit to Corvo - with two twitches to Flores just for some speed boat fun :)

Five new birds including Blue-winged and Tennessee Warblers, Purple Martin, Common Nighthawk and this White-tailed Tropicbird (my bird of the year) is a fantastic return - looking forward to a full three weeks on the islands next year!

Locally, Cleveland fared well, with White-throated Robin, Sandhill Crane and Pallid Harrier all adding themselves to the county list - only the latter being remotely expected!

So, what for 2012?

Well, my real number one goal is to catch up with Brown Fish Owl in Turkey. Couldn't make it this year so hoping the pair continue to perform for another season in the Green Canyon. My most wanted WP bird for a number of years... if I see this all else will be a bonus.

So cheers to all for a great year and good birding for the next 12 months!

Geese and Grey Phal....

Weird goings on..... White-fronted Geese everywhere in Cleveland at the moment and some Tundra Beans too - what the hell has caused these record numbers god only knows?

So, off out with camera early this morning to try and photograph some but fog made it obvious anything I was going to get a picture of would have to be close... the light was just awful!

A treat it was then to be given an opportunity by this beautifully obliging Grey Phalarope at Hartlepool - what a stunner!

County Ticks!

The downside of going away in October is that you're very likely to miss 'goodies' at home.

This year's cost of going to Corvo was a four day Glossy Ibis... but it could have been much worse!

Landing at Luton to the news of 'nothing to worry about', it took only 20 minutes into the journey before the 'Hen Harrier' at Dormans photos were placed on the net and, of course, showed it to be a stunning juv Pallid!

Not too surprising that we should get one after this autumn's influx but, with no chance of getting home by dark, a rather sickening piece of news.

Regular updates had us knowing that it roosted so, before first light, Graeme and I were in position to add this beautiful bird to our Cleveland Lists.

Also staying 4 days (though hard work for the last two) it was the icing on the cake for Cleveland in 2011 - with White-throated Robin and Sandhill Crane already secured, will our county ever have a better year?

Another Corvo Season full of ticks!!

The perfect bird - Blue-winged Warbler - stayed! Joined by a Tennessee, which also stayed!

Sea-watching was magnificent - thousands of Great Shears. Also saw Grants Petrel and Fea's Petrel.

Twitched Flores twice to see Common Nighthawk and White-tailed Tropicbird - OMG what a bird!

Oh, and on the way back to Corvo we heard there was a Purple Martin on the island..... sixth tick in as many days.

Other photographic opportunities were few but pleased with this White-rumped....

Sandhill Crane!!!

Well I guess this will never happen again....

The Aberdeenshire Sandhill was tracked from Northumberland to Yorkshire today, hugging the coast - making it pretty straight forward to twitch. An hour and a quarter's wait between Whitburn and us jingled the nerves a bit but It arrived in the end and flew straight past us and through Hartlepool.

Magnificent!

Just over a week to Corvo..... :-)