Looking back on 2017

2017 has been a great year for me all round - but particularly for wildlife. From attending the BTO BirdCamp to starting nest recording, I had many amazing new experiences and met loads of great people. Here is the shortlist of the highlights of my year!

Winter:

New year in Scotland

At the start of the year, I went on a trip to Scotland. On the way I had a trip to WWT Caerlaverock, where I saw thousands of Barnacle Geese, crowds of Wigeon, Shoveler and Teal, restless flocks of Black-tailed Godwits and family parties of Whooper Swan. While in Scotland I also saw large numbers of Red Kite - seeing this graceful raptor daily was really special.

Ringing farmland birds

During the winter, I had the opportunity to ring on two of my ringing trainer's farmland sites. We were very successful, and caught plenty of Yellowhammers and Tree Sparrows. It was great to see two normally shy species up close. Unfortunately, both species are declining dramatically due to changes in farming practices.

A trip to Norway

In the holidays, I went on a family skiing holiday in Norway. However, a holiday isn't a holiday without a bit of birding, so I spent plenty of time out near the hotel finding birds. It paid off, and I saw a good variety including Mealy (Common) Redpoll, Willow Tit and Nuthatch (ssp europaea). It was interesting to see the differences between Mealy and Lesser Redpolls, as well as getting to know the continental Nuthatch subspecies.

Spring

Nest Recording

2017 was my first year recording nests for the BTO. I found a total of 31, including 7 Robin nests and 4 Chiffchaff nests. In 2018 I am starting a project on nesting Robins, and have given myself a target of finding 50 nests overall.

BTO BirdCamp

In May I attended the BTO's annual BirdCamp, a fab weekend for 12-18 year old birders from across the UK. I learnt lots about nest recording, the Breeding Bird Survey, moth trapping and more. I also met lots of like-minded young people, most of which I am still in contact with. While I was there I saw Nightjars being ringed, visited Landguard Bird Observatory and much more. The camp was probably the best part of 2017 for me.

Summer

CES ringing

During the breeding season, some ringers choose to ring on Constant Effort Sites (CES). My ringing trainer has multiple of these special sites - there are just over 100 ran each year. CES ringing is different to normal ringing as it has to be done once every 10 days on each site. Data collected on CES is used to monitor common breeding species. I ringed on multiple CES visits throughout the summer, and ringed birds such as Redstarts, Mistle Thrushes and even a Kestrel!

Chew Valley Ringing Course

At the start of the summer holidays I went south with my mum to Somerset for a ringing course at Chew Valley Lake. Hundreds of birds were caught over the three days, of which I processed 95. Of the birds I processed, the highlights for me were a Water Rail, a Moorhen and the Swallows we caught going into roost.

France

In the summer holidays I went to France on a sailing holiday with my family. The lake which we were sailing on was full of wildlife - Swallows and Sand Martins were all over the place, swarming over the surface in search of flies to keep them going on their journey to Africa. Over the two weeks I also saw two Ospreys over the lake, and Black Kites flew over daily. As well as this I saw a Black Woodpecker on the campsite - a new species for me! The only other lifer of the trip was a small number of Yellow-legged Gulls that I found on a beach while we were there.

Farne Islands

In the summer I went on a trip to the Farne Islands with Michael Sinclair, who I met at BTO BirdCamp. We saw lots of nesting seabirds, such as Puffins, Guillemots and Arctis Terns. We also saw lots of seals.

Autumn

Vismig

During the autumn I started "vismigging" (watching migrating birds) over my house. Mainly it was pretty quiet, but one morning I counted 1.6K birds over, including over 1'000 Redwings! Watching flocks of hundreds of thrushes streaming over the Tyne Valley was an amazing experience.

Winter

BTO Conference

On the second weekend of December I travelled south with mum again to attend the BTO's annual Conference. It was a very interesting weekend with very informative talks, and I met lots of new people. There were also much more young people there this year, which was good to see.

WeBS

I have also recently signed up for WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) on two local wetland sites, a stretch of the Tyne and my local pond. Both are fab sites with lots of variety, and I am looking forward to seeing what I find on my monthly counts. I know the pond very well, but the river not so much - therefore I have devoted three days over the past three weeks to get to know the site. I have found lots so far, including Goldeneye, Goosander, Teal and Lapwing.

As well as all of these, I have also started photography as well as doing some bird drawings. Here are some of my favourites;