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Birding Tradition: the New Year’s Day List

10,000 Birds

Starting the New Year by trying to see as many species as possible is something of a birding tradition. My diary notes that the New Year dawned grey and windy, but I rose early, walked six miles before breakfast and noted a modest 26 species of birds. The latter are great bruisers of ducks, built like a small battle ship.

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A winter miscellany

10,000 Birds

In short, it was the perfect day to go birding, so I grabbed my binoculars and camera and set off for the forest. The trouble with mature pine forest is that it isn’t really very good for birds, and in winter there’s little to be found there apart from Goldcrests and Coal T**s.

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A Gentlemen’s Big Day’s Birding

10,000 Birds

In my younger days I was very keen on what is generally known as Big Day Birding, or trying to see as many species of birds as possible in one day. Called The Big Bird Race , it tells the story of how my team, representing Country Life magazine , recorded 155 species in 24 hours in East Anglia (Suffolk and Norfolk).

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Roebuck Plains in flood

10,000 Birds

It didn’t take too long after the big rain event at the end of January for Roebuck Plains to flood and the birds to arrive. The highway out of Broome towards Derby has also become great for bird-watching. Sadly, one of the first birds that we saw was a recently deceased Barn Owl. Water across the highway.

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Lifer! But, which one?

10,000 Birds

We didn’t manage to make it happen the first Monday, but on the 28th of June, we birded his property together. But the Mexican Ducks say otherwise. Fortunately, low light works quite well for certain deeply-colored birds, like this one of the several Blue Grosbeaks that were to be found. appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

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Could have done better? Confessions of a year-lister.

10,000 Birds

However, I have to put it in perspective by explaining that during the year I hardly ventured out of East Anglia, and almost every bird was seen in Suffolk or Norfolk – I live on the county boundary. I’m not a twitcher, either, so I rarely, if ever, go in search of a bird, or birds, that someone else has reported.

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Birding a flooded highway

10,000 Birds

The day before we headed south to Perth to circumnavigate Herdsman Lake and see the amazing bird-life there we did a short drive out of town at home in Broome. The road north was closed beyond a certain distance, but the road south remained open and always offers excellent birding opportunities when this happens.

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