Maximum effort, minimum reward

Ring Ouzel digiscoped at 100m.
Mike P's recent Malling, Kent garden bird
#BWKM0 ND&B garden challenge
DAY 29

My day has been spent staring vainly at oncoming weather fronts, rain-bearing cloud and empty skies. Tonight promises much listening of the world at night. Maximum effort, minimum reward so far. How about you?

OUR COMBINED TOTAL (BRITISH ISLES GARDENS) IS 163 SPECIES   Still to be recorded are: Pochard, Tufted Duck, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit, Common Sandpiper, any skua, Common Tern, Arctic Tern, Swift, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Kingfisher, Common Redstart, Whinchat, Lesser Whitethroat.

Our oversea's gardens (New Zealand and Albania) add an additional 15 SPECIES

Today’s additions are: Stone Curlew (Stuart C), Razorbill (Michael D) and Sanderling (Richard P)

You can find the combined #BWKM0 list by clicking on the right-hand tab above.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NEW ENTRIES

 Stuart C (Walkern, Herts)
Currently has a 'lockdown' list of 60 species, including Stone Curlew
Our 'garden collective' stands at 59

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Garden firsts
Richard P (Charmouth, Dorset) - Sanderling
Mike P (Malling, Kent) - Little Egret
David S (West Raynham, Norfolk) - Coot and Moorhen

There have been 143 garden firsts across the competition.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Visual interlude - #8 Beddington Sewage Farm
A sewage farm? Being used to illustrate the kind of places we are missing? Well, yes. This is not just a site that I would like to return to but, in a strange way, a time that I would like to return to as well. This is an area of the farm called '100 acre' and it is one of the few parts of the site not to have been ravaged by extraction, landfill or industry. This picture was taken maybe 10 years ago, but looks just as it did when I first set foot there in 1974. I cut my birding teeth here and it will always be dear to me - at least, in the pockets of land that have not been sullied. Here lurk the ghosts of old birding pals, Spotted Crakes and a host of waders.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

How are we getting on?
Alphabetical order by first name. The first figure is the garden score as on March 20th. The second is since then (as up to date as I am aware).

Arjun D (Wallington, Surrey) - 74/60; Bene A (Tirana, Albania) xx/30;
Benno W (Goodnestone, Kent) xx/37; Bernard B (Ruckinge, Kent) 107/59; 
Bob S (Worcester Park, Surrey) 86/32; Callum M (Hemel Hempstead, Herts) 64/61;
Cheech A (Langley Vale, Surrey) xx/38; Chris P (Claygate, Surrey) - 43/39; 
Dave B (Chatham Islands, Pacific Ocean) 30/21; Dave P (Shoreham, West Sussex) - 55/41; 
David S (West Raynham, Norfolk) - 87/59; Debbie S (Portland, Dorset) 155/41; 
Dylan W (Thanet, Kent) 111/51; Ed S (Farncombe, Surrey) - 79/77;  
Gavin H (Bridport, Dorset) xx/44;  Geoff B (Chessington, Surrey) 69/28; 
Gill H (Tenterden, Kent) 60/31; Gordon H (Redhill, Surrey) 80/43; 
Ian K (Leigh, Surrey) 62/37; Ian S (Sidcup, Kent) - 113/48; 
Ian W (Merton Park, London) 86/44; Isaiah R (New Malden, London) 76/52; 
John P (Banstead, Surrey) xx/xx; Jono L (Wanstead, London) 83/64; 
Josephine S (Leatherhead, Surrey) 40/38; Justin T (Charmouth, Dorset) 59/32;
Mark D (Dorking, Surrey) 59/51; Mark H (Littlestone, Kent) 135/61:
Mark N (Stutton, Suffolk) - 77/60; Martin C (Lydd, Kent) 140/82;
Mathew B (Wrotham, Kent) - 33/46; Matt P (Pulborough, West Sussex) 126/96;   
Michael D (Craster, Northumberland) 106/58; Mike P (Malling, Kent) 70/59; 
Mike R (Battle, East Sussex) 97/50;  Oscar D (Chiswick, London) - 67/52;
Paul D (London) 84/43; Pete B (Shadoxhurst, Kent) 101/45;
Phil B (Ramsgate, Kent) 54/30; Rebecca G (Balham, London) xx/13;
Reuben B (Tufnell Park, London) - 45/43; Richard F (Pinner, London) 63/35;
Richard P (Charmouth, Dorset) - 101/68;  Robin S (Cranleigh, Surrey) - 101/51; 
Sam B (Enniskeane, Cork) - 67/60; Seamus E (Thornton Cleveleys, Lancs) - 67/38; 
Sean M (Pinner, London) - 50/38; Seth G (Uig, Skye) 64/50;  
Stephen R (Harrogate, Yorks) 66/42; Steve C (Guildford, Surrey) 66/36; 
Steve G (Banstead, Surrey) - 92/68; Steve T (Ewell, Surrey) 59/36;
Steve W (Hawes, N Yorks) - 91/53; Stewart S (Howick, Northumberland) 131/66;
Stuart C (Walkern, Herts) - xx/60;  Sye W (Aston Clinton, Bucks) - xx/40;
Tony B (Woodford, London) 69/50; Wes A (Capel, Surrey) - 96/81

THE CHALLENGE WILL END AT 18.00hrs ON THURSDAY MAY 7th

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goldfinches and Lavender

Image
We have three medium-sized Lavender bushes in our back garden. Throughout the summer the flowers (which last for several months) are a magnet for insects and give off a most restful aroma. As tempting as it is to cut the dead stems in the autumn, we always leave them, as we know that during the late winter we will get visitors to feed on the seed heads... This video was taken from the kitchen window this morning. We will normally see one or two birds over a few days, but have had up to 14 at once. We never tire of watching them. Lavender is a wonderful plant to have in the garden, with year round natural history benefits. So what are you waiting for? They are readily available at a garden centre close to you right now! There is an historic association with Lavender in this part of northern Surrey and south London. Lavender fields have been harvested for many years, with one particular field close to Woodmansterne being very popular with day trippers. A significant proportion o...
Read more

Welcome back!

Image
In November 2005 I purchased a pair of Swarovski 10x42 EL binoculars from The London Camera Exchange shop in Guildford, for the then princely sum of £899. These bins have served me well, with almost daily use in all types of weather, testing their durability to the maximum - salt water spray, deluges of rain, 38C temperatures, dust, dirt, slight knocks... and apart from the armour coating that had started to bubble and come away from the body, nothing to be alarmed about. Then, in the summer of 2022, I noticed that I had a problem when close focusing - the outer focusing wheel would lose grip and it would take me an age to regain a middle-ground distance of focus - plus, over the next few weeks this outer focusing wheel became loose. I resorted to the use of tape to keep it all in place, but realised that I had to do something about it in the long run. For a while I did consider buying a new pair - after all, they were then 17-years old - but they were still optically superb. It seemed...
Read more

A special day

In birding, timing can mean the difference between an average day in the field and that of a spectacular one. Good timing can be helped by reading the weather conditions correctly, or understanding local conditions but it is more often down to pure luck. In this case, I just got lucky... I had not visited Dungeness since March 2022, quite a gap for me. It was high time that I once more trod the shingle and my timing of a visit was down to several factors, mostly a personal liking for mid-late autumn but also because I needed to be at home until September 20th and could not make the journey south until then. I also chose to stay at the bird observatory for a few days rather than make it a day trip. All this conveniently found me stepping outside the observatory's back door in the breaking dawn of Sunday 22nd September, quickly making my way to the fishing boats, an area I prefer to stand to best appreciate any visible bird migration, an aspect of birding that I find exhilarating.  A...
Read more