Well here I am again.... A warm welcome from these parts to wherever you may find yourself reading from. Another year beckons, indeed has now arrived. Remarkably as one year transitioned into the next I was invited to a party - this never happens. Even more remarkably I managed to stay up until gone midnight which also never happens. I think we got home at 2.30am having ticked about ten Robins singing under street lamps on the walk back. Needless to say I did not go birding on New Years Day. The weather was disgusting anyway, very unconducive to being outdoors in it. Some brave local souls gave it a good go and were rewarded with a Bullfinch in the Old Sewage Works, a bird I've not seen locally for what seems like an age. I must potter over there at some point.
So far I've managed to look out of the window for approximately eight minutes and so my yearlist is now 15 species. It includes a Redpoll though which is pretty good for the garden. Just a flyover of course, but they all count. Broadly the plan this year is to do the same as last year - I had my usual mix of being here and being away but still ended up on 117 species locally in 2024 which is actually one of my higher totals. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Birding abroad will continue to feature but perhaps not as strenuously as last year. I have no lofty four figure aspirations, I scratched that itch last year.
Talking of birding abroad I have devoted a few quiet moments to finally writing up my epic trip with Bob and Richard to Brazil in July last year. I had forgotten quite how many photographs I ended up taking and it has taken an age to work through the first few days whilst remembering exactly what was seen where. With so many different birds this has been very taxing. I am making good progress though and in a few days I'll start to inflict them on you as the usual day by day blog posts. Sorry not sorry. For now here is a bit of a South American taster, with a Ringed Teal that decided to visit Wanstead last Sunday. Pretty sure it didn't arrive directly from Argentina....
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