NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

2014 that is. I know it hasn't quite finished, but the year is slowing down, wheezing a bit and will soon come to a halt. More than a handful of birders that I know have already moth-balled their optics. It has been an odd year for me. I dispensed with full-time employment last December but have most probably done even less birding/mothing/planting than ever before. I did get out there, but it was in fits and starts. A fortnight at Dungeness in mid-May was as hardcore as it got. And then, when autumn was upon us, I took on an eight-week contract and entered the world of the employed once again - bad timing as far as the birding went. What did I see this year? It had its moments. Those two weeks at Dungeness produced a Great Reed Warbler, a Bee-eater, a Montagu's Harrier and two Black-winged Stilts; locally a Merlin and 2 Spoonbills; moths were not a great success, with my continued failure with pheromone lures causing frustration; plants took a back seat although I finally ...

A third of the way through January already. 2014 has, after just 12 days, lost the shiny feel of a 'brave new world' and I have settled down into a life that does not revolve around a year tick and how many pan-species I've seen so far during the month. Yesterday saw a family outing to the coast, where in glorious weather we walked along the sandy beach at Ferring, with Sanderling scurrying ahead of us, snow white in the brightness. It was warm enough to keep one eye out for a butterfly. I failed, but others up and down the country succeeded - and just a week after the shittiest spell of weather that we've had to suffer for many a year. It doesn't take long for the hype around a new year to die down. I'm glad when it does so. There's too much expectation to live up to.

I have had access to the North Downs and Beyond crystal ball, and can reveal the high (and low) lights coming up in 2014. January: Year listing is postponed for the month owing to flooding, strong winds and a large dollop of apathy. February: It is revealed that the Humberside Ivory Gull really was just a pigeon. Hornsea pigeon-fancier Seth Boycott said 'I wondered why Snowy came back to the loft each evening stinking of fish, and now I know why!" March: Twitter has a record day on March 15th, when over 756,000 tweets are sent with the word 'Wheatear' appearing. Over 230,000 images of the same species are posted on Blogger the following week. April: British Birds journal is relaunched, now to be called 'BOOM!' May: The first auto-bird-recognition filter for Swarovski scopes is available, but is soon recalled after every Common Swift is registered as a Pallid. Some birders wonder whether the filter had already been put into production the previou...

For 2014 I need to learn a few lessons and eradicate the negative aspects of 2013. These mostly centre around my irrational disapproval directed towards twitching and the banal use of Twitter. Confession time: I have twitched in the past and I do use Twitter (and sometimes in a less than useful way). I must also accept that twitching and the misuse (in my opinion) of a social media tool is harmless. I have the choice not get involved - it is an option. Twitter does have its uses. It enables me to keep up to date with what is being seen (birds as well as other life forms). It can be entertaining. I can also keep abreast of what my fellow naturalists are up to. There is a downside to all of this, and that is that I will receive every single tweet sent from everybody that I follow. That is how it works. That is something that I have to accept if I am to use Twitter. So, I need to approach it like a prospector who has to sift through a heap of mud to find a gold nugget. Embrace the B...