A couple of trips up to see the parents over the last month allowed me to visit some of my early stamping grounds. Some changes in the local bird life are really noticable from the 70's/early 80s. New species include Nuthatch, Magpie and Little Egret. Magpie was always the most glaring omission. I only ever saw 2 individuals when I lived in Annan - my year ticks came from ticking birds on the English side of the Solway or traveling to Dumfries.
Another winner is Stock Dove. Whilst this species was always around, it appears to have become much commoner I even found a singing male in a park at the edge of town, and a flock of 100+ were found feeding in a stubble field (with about 60 feral pigeons and around 30 Woodpigeons).
Losses are harder to identify. Whilst wildfowl and wader numbers were lower than what I used to see I'm not clear as to whether that was down to the mild winter.
Geese are the big winter draw for the area with Pink-foot and Barnacle being the dominant species. Both are easy to find. One of the great sights of my most recent trip was watching a field with 3000+ Barnies and a few Pinkies as I remember when the entire Svalbard population of Barnies was less than 3000) Working through the feeding flock I found a leuistic Barnie - these are only found in the Svalbard population - and then a Bar-headed Goose??
Away from the birding, I managed to catch up with the globular Springtail Dicyryomina saundersi, one of the easiest of the Springtails to identify thanks to its striped rear.
Another winner is Stock Dove. Whilst this species was always around, it appears to have become much commoner I even found a singing male in a park at the edge of town, and a flock of 100+ were found feeding in a stubble field (with about 60 feral pigeons and around 30 Woodpigeons).
Losses are harder to identify. Whilst wildfowl and wader numbers were lower than what I used to see I'm not clear as to whether that was down to the mild winter.
Geese are the big winter draw for the area with Pink-foot and Barnacle being the dominant species. Both are easy to find. One of the great sights of my most recent trip was watching a field with 3000+ Barnies and a few Pinkies as I remember when the entire Svalbard population of Barnies was less than 3000) Working through the feeding flock I found a leuistic Barnie - these are only found in the Svalbard population - and then a Bar-headed Goose??
Away from the birding, I managed to catch up with the globular Springtail Dicyryomina saundersi, one of the easiest of the Springtails to identify thanks to its striped rear.
