A Photographic Review of my Birding Year 2024

This is a highly subjective photographic review of my 2024 birding year. The photos are ones I particularly like. There are notable absences such as Indigo Bunting, Pale legged Leaf Warbler, Yellow Warbler and Scops Owl all of which I failed to see this year due to my unavoidable absence for one reason or another. I should add I have no regrets.

I added two new species to my British List this year - South Polar Skua and Booted Eagle but neither feature in this review. Currently I have seen 537 species of bird in Britain.

There is always next year.

So here we go.

JANUARY

Northern Waterthrush Heybridge Essex 17 January

The eighth record for Britain of this North American warbler and my second, having seen one on The Isles of Scilly in October 2011. Provided one was prepared to withstand sub zero temperatures and wait for long periods doing nothing but staring at a bird free ditch of water lady luck would eventually play ball. A sensational and totally surprising start to the year.

Barn Owl nr Hawling Gloucestershire 28 January 

The day after my birthday an unexpected opportunity presented itself whilst waiting in a rural lane in The Cotswolds for Short eared Owls to commence flying in the late afternoon This Barn Owl appeared from nowhere and made two close passes of me as it hunted. A sheer fluke but none the less very welcome.

FEBRUARY

Lesser Yellowlegs Frampton RSPB Lincolnshire 14 February

I spent an entire day watching and photographing this long staying, supremely elegant North American wader on one of my favourite reserves. So much more delicate in build and refined in movement than our familiar Common Redshank, its British counterpart.

Waxwing Abingdon Oxfordshire 25 February

The winter of 2023/2024 was a relatively good one for Waxwings irrupting into Britain and Oxfordshire had its fair share of this visitor from the pine forests across the North Sea. After a frustrating wait a small group showed themselves well in a large tree on a housing estate with this one bird coming down low to snatch one of the last berries left on a hawthorn

MARCH

Woodlark  Greenham Common  Newbury Berkshire  14 March

This bird allowed me to get very close as it both sang and fed on the ground. An early harbinger of Spring its haunting song could not fail but bring a sense of hope and promise in equal measure

APRIL

Black necked Grebe St Aidans RSPB  nr Leeds West Yorkshire  5 April

I got really lucky when a pre breeding pair swam into a small channel of water very close to the bank on which I was standing.When such a circumstance arrives you do not hesitate. I particularly like the composition of this image of a bird not quite in full breeding plumage. 

Yellow rumped Warbler Kilwinning North Ayrshire 13 April

This image was taken on a third visit to see this rare American warbler (only the 28th to be found in Britain) residing in an unremarkable garden in Scotland and which through the winter had gradually assumed its full male breeding attire, transforming itself from a rather drab brown bird to this very pleasing smart.  grey, black and white plumage with a dash of bright yellow. As they say 'a real stunner' and it is very rare (only the second time?) that an American warbler has been seen in full breeding plumage in Britain. I much prefer its alternative name of Myrtle Warbler.

Puffins Farne Islands Northumberland 14 April

Having seen the Yellow rumped Warbler the day before, on the way back south we diverted to spend an afternoon on the Farne Islands. Taken from the boat as we approached the Inner Farne to make our landing I like the symmetry of these two Puffins flying over a blue sea and everyone likes these sea parrots do they not?

Gannets Bempton RSPB  East Yorkshire 16 April

It is impossible to not get acceptable images of the Gannets at Bempton as they stand close to the edge of their breeding cliffs displaying or flying past.These two, pair bonding, were oblivious of me as I stood on one of the reserve's cliff edge viewpoints.

Marsh Sandpiper Lymington Hampshire 22 April

On a morning of strange diffused sunlight which I at first considered would preclude anything but a record shot the resulting image surprised me as it gave this rare sandpiper an almost ethereal appearance as it fed in the still water of a distant lagoon.

Swallow Farmoor Reservoir Oxfordshire 28 April

On a foul day of high wind and rain migrant Swallows were forced close to the reservoir's causeway where I stood, to avoid the strong wind and where they could more easily pick off hatching flies from the water's surface. A quite moving experience watching them struggling to survive in the hostile conditions and a chance to admire their supreme elegance and grace as they flew back and fore.

MAY

Alpine Accentor Pitstone Buckinghamshire 5 May

A real surprise and one that required immediate action as it was found on Sunday lunchtime and was gone the next day. It was doubly remarkable that the bird was found in a quarry by a person looking for a rare type of moss and not knowing what he was looking at sent some images to a colleague on holiday in Turkey who identified it and put the news out on social media. Isn't the internet wonderful!

Little Stint  Isle of Arran North Lanarkshire 28 May

Whilst on holiday and casually checking a group of migrating Sanderlings that had stopped off to feed on the seashore I was delighted to discover this Little Stint amongst them, the first to be recorded on Arran for twenty two years. It was also notable that it was in breeding plumage not something that I have seen for a very  long time

JUNE

Yellow crowned Night Heron   Belcarra  Co Mayo  Rep of Ireland  14 June

I rarely twitch birds in Ireland but this spectacular heron was just too tempting being a first for Britain and Ireland. It was frequenting a small river with a high shaded bank which made for the almost perfect background to highlight the bird. Myself and my twitching pal Mark were the only people looking at it and were there and back in two days. The trip was memorable also for the fact I caught covid for the first time, probably from a man coughing and spluttering  in the seat next to me on the flight over. The first time I have got anything for free from Ryanair!

JULY

Franklin's Gull  Crossness  nr Erith Kent  16 July

A spur of the moment decision to go and see this rare gull from North America feeding with Black headed Gulls at a sewage outfall by the River Thames on the furthest outskirts of London seemed a good idea at the time. It was great to see the gull but not so enjoyable was the nightmare drive across London to see it and enduring the malodorous smell at the sewage outfall. This was only the second one to be recorded in London with less than a hundred having been recorded in Britain

AUGUST

Three pelagic trips off The Isles of Scilly 29-31 August

I took hundreds of images over the three days and it was difficult to choose from them but the three below strike a chord with me.The image of the Long tailed Skua will win no prizes but the bird hanging above our boat in the afterglow of a late evening out at sea seems to capture the essence of a very different existence. I also rather like action shots such as the Cory's Shearwater pattering along the sea on take off and the raft of Great Shearwaters becalmed far out to sea on a day of little wind was also notable.I remember them calling to each other with voices like a toy trumpet

Long tailed Skua

Cory's Shearwater

Great Shearwaters

SEPTEMBER

Sabine's Gull  Burnham on Sea Somerset 12 September

It took many hoursof waiting but finally this juvenile turned up and performed beautifully, It came very close and was fearless but I rather prefer this image showing it more distantly, swimming in one of the pools it frequented

Steppe Grey Shrike  Dunbar  Lothian 19 September

On the way to my annual stay on Shetland I stopped off to see this very confiding bird on a golf course by the sea. A great start to my three week birding trip.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

Each year I go to Shetland in the hope of seeing rare birds and generally enjoying just being in a strange and bewitching land. Sometimes it can be disappointing birdwise but these last two years have been the opposite and below are some of the highlights from this year's visit. 

Long may it continue!

Red breasted Flycatcher  

Pechora Pipit

Golden Oriole

Little Bunting

Arctic Warbler

DECEMBER

Purple Sandpiper  Farmoor Reservoir Oxfordshire  8 December

A very unusual and out of place visitor to my local reservoir on a day of extraordinarily high winds.I was the only person to brave the conditions and was overjoyed to be rewarded for my persistence with this birding prize.

Short eared Owl  nr Hawling  Gloucestershire  19 December

Look into my eyes! At the end of the year I was indeed fortunate to get this image of one of the owls perched on a drystone wall. It was entirely luck being in the right place at the right time, and the light being nigh on perfect. This allowed me to get this image which in my opinion is the best of my efforts throughout the year.

Best wishes for the New Year

Back to the Owls 16th December 2024

Last Saturday I kept a promise to myself and revisited a certain place in The Cotswolds where I had been fortunate to see some Short eared Owls a week ago see here.

However I was disappointed to draw a blank as no owls were flying over their favourite fields.Talking to another birder I discovered that they had been seen earlier in the day but now at 1000am on a sunny morning there was no sign of them.Presumably they were hunkered down in  the fields of long coarse grass that serves as their winter home. I was further advised that they were unlikely to re-appear until mid afternoon.

I hung around for an hour or so harbouring a vague hope but my heart was not in it and I soon lost the will to persevere and left for home. However I vowed to return today, Monday and see if my luck would change.

Not having anything better to distract me I decided to make a day of it although aware the owls were unlikely to be around until mid afternoon. Short eared Owls are however unpredictable and I clung, totally unreasonably and without foundation, to the slim hope one or more might show themselves earlier.

Delayed by a minor problem at home I got there at 1030 and found that I was not alone in holding out hope that an owl might be up and about. Another fifteen cars were randomly scattered along the verges of the two lanes bordering the favoured fields but there was little sign of anyone, just empty cars.

I parked in my usual spot on the verge of the quieter of the two lanes and where it intersected with the other busier lane which appeared to be a link between two larger roads judging by the regular traffic passing along it.

Looking up that lane I could see one other photographer moving rapidly up the lane towards an owl flying around by a drystone wall that marked the far end of the field. I caught up with the unknown photographer and we made a five minute walk up the lane to the top end of the field, both of us fearing the obvious  that the owl would have disappeared by the time we got there. All went well however as the owl stalled in mid air and pitched into the grass right by the lane, which at this time of the day was thankfully relatively quiet.

We walked as close as we dared to the owl as it stood in the grass.Had it caught a vole? Getting closer it looked like it had missed its intended victim but remained in the grass looking around for a minute or two. Owls when they fail like this always adopt a look of complete surprise on their face as if they can hardly believe the vole has escaped their clutches

Where did that vole go?

The owl took off and flew in a familiar buoyant flight to a nearby dry stone wall and posed beautifully on top of the wall in perfect sunlight. We both made the most of this unexpected and rare opportunity and took our pictures, quite a few in fact! 

The owl remained on the wall for a few minutes and then took to the air only to be instantly mobbed by a Carrion Crow. It flew down the field, passing us and parallel to the lane, before dropping into the grass and that was it. I could not find it in the grass, even with my bins as no doubt it had secreted itself behind a large tussock,well out of the cold southwest wind .

Well, what an unexpected bonus that was and buoyed by this success we stood about waiting and hoping for more but as often happens no more owl action came our way. We walked down the lane and leaving my new found friend I turned right to walk along my favourite quieter lane, finding other photographers stood by another wall overlooking the fields.I hadn't the heart to tell them  that they were in the wrong place  and what they had missed but their presence explained the cars but no people that I had noted earlier. I walked to the end of the lane and turned right again for a short stretch and then right once more onto a footpath that led across the top of the fields and eventually took me back to where I had first seen the owl. I discovered yet more photographers scanning the fields from the footpath as I passed along it.Sadly though, no owls were to be seen anywhere.

A Raven put in its customary appearance, announcing its presence by 'cronking' as it flew high over the fields and a flock of Rooks, scattered like black rags on the wind. Three Fieldfares, moving west, chackered in alarm high in the grey sky, the earlier sun now but a memory. 

I walked back to my car and chatted some more to my photographer friend who told me he came here frequently, travelling all the way from Somerset and it transpired he was a mine of local knowledge and information. He told me he was on good terms with the farmer who is sympathetic to the owls, has erected Barn Owl boxes and is paid to keep the fields free of chemicals, which means the voles thrive. He also told me that after I had left on Saturday the farmer had counted 64 cars here in the afternoon! This location is becoming ever more well known, some say notorious and I do not know why I keep it a secret as the genie is well out of the bottle, so if anyone wishes to know, it is near a village called Hawling. Google 'Owls and Hawling' and you will find all the information you require. I would not recommend visiting on weekends.

Disconcertingly the photographer told me a friend of his who came here on Sunday last had seen no owls at all despite staying all day. I was also informed that the owls are favouring the fields either side of the busier lane this year.It is information such as this that is crucial for success as before I had always assumed the quieter lane was the best location to see the owls.

After our chat I decided to go to my car and sit in the warm out of the wind as it had now become strong and it felt decidedly cold, the fields being at quite a high and exposed elevation.I wondered if the wind would deter the owls from flying.

The hours passed slowly as I  listened to the radio in the car which was positioned so I was able to check the fields with my bins without having to leave the car. Three hours passed with not a sign of an owl and I was saying to myself as birders do in such situations 

'Let's give it another half an hour Ewan and then go'

Or is just me that does this? 

I noticed from noon onwards an increasing number of cars were arriving with birders/photographers and parking in the passing places along the busier narrow lane.Not a good idea in my opinion and by so doing generating plenty of potential to upset the locals.They could always park in the quieter lane and walk.It really is not that far just a few hundred metres,.

Two thirty arrived and I decided on no more half hour extensions, opting to make one final walk up and down the lane before heading for home. I had some nice images after all from this morning's lucky encounter. I got out of the car and casually checked the field to my right as I had done countless times before and there, at the top, as earlier this morning, was the distinctive profile of a flying Short eared Owl.

At last! 

I hurried up the lane passing other owl enthusiasts who seemed not to have noticed the flying owl, being engrossed in looking over the field on the other side of the lane. I got to the top of the lane and stationed myself on the narrow verge, standing perilously close to the tarmac and fast moving passing cars but needs must.

The busy narrow lane, for the moment traffic free.The owls were hunting over
the fields either side and in some cases crossed the lane

Owls now seemed to be everywhere on either side of the lane, flying both near and distant over the fields. 

Like giant moths they floated across the fields, every so often rising in the sky to conduct regular disputes with other owls, their harsh cries of displeasure at finding another of their kind encroaching on their airspace sounding loud and clearly in the cold air, two sometimes three regularly interacting, flying with supreme grace and speed, rising to aerobatically talon grapple with one another.

The owls not only had confrontations with their own kind but with kestrels and crows.The former in particular aggressively trying to mug any owl that had caught a vole. One kestrel right in front of me successfully attacked and locked talons with an owl which relinquished its vole prey and fled.I have seen kestrels do this to Barn Owls but never knew they would tackle these Short eared Owls.

A Kestrel in the act of stealing a vole from a Short eared Owl

For an unforgettable hour, that passed all too quickly, it was Short eared Owl mania before the light became too dull for photos.The owls continued their hunting and foregoing the camera I watched, enthralled  through my bins, as up to six Short eared Owls quartered  the fields.  

It was a truly amazing sight to see these beautiful and charismatic creatures so close to me and for such a prolonged period.

Happy Christmas one and all, whoever you are and wherever you may be.

do dheagh shlainte agus sonas - to your good health and happiness

This will be my last post for a while. I am off home to Scotland.and wilder places