My Top Five Birds of 2021

All this Covid stuff has made a lot of us take stock of our lives and what we do, and me no less than anybody else. In particular I’ve been reviewing my bird photos for some of the time and I’ve realised that I’ve got some decent shots of most common UK birds - so I’ve asked myself, ‘Do I really need any more of the same species?’

I’ve never understood why some photographers get on the annual seasonal bandwagon of having to shoot the same birds in the same location at the same time of each and every year - I mean, how many Owl, Kingfisher, Puffin, Kite, Gannet, Black Grouse, Snow Bunting, Osprey and even White-tailed Eagle shots do you really need? And then they flood the internet with countless similar images which are pretty much the same as everyone elses. Madness, and it happens every year. 

Surely less is more here and one good image is better than countless similar ones where you couldn’t decide which one was best. After a couple of shots most people scroll on or turn off.  I’ll hold my hands up and say that in the past I’ve done it too, but not any more. From now on I’ll be mainly photographing UK birds of which I’ve got no decent shots, which generally will mean seabirds and rarities. I’m not saying that I’ll never shoot one of the aforementioned species ever again, but I won’t be on the annual cycle going from one species to another (which often includes otters, deer, hares, foxes and badgers) getting even more shots to add to a library stuffed full of similar ones.

So if you’re wondering why I’ve not been posting much recently and you may have even noticed that I’ve left a lot of Facebook groups, there’s the reason. Perhaps not everyone will agree but I’m happy with my decision.

Anyway, reviewing my bird photos from this year (what else is there to do on these gloomy late December days?) here are my Top Five birds of 2021. Considering I didn't go out much this year and there were two or three months where I didn't take a single bird photograph, I'm pleased with these rarities which were all Lifers for me.

Black-browed Albatross - Bempton Cliffs RSPB, East Yorkshire

Belted Kingfisher - Roach Bridge, Lancashire

White-tailed Lapwing - Blacktoft Sands RSPB, West Yorkshire

Elegant Tern - Cemlyn Bay, Anglesey

Long-toed Stint - St. Aidan's RSPB, West Yorkshire

L.O.S. 'Decide on the Day Fieldrip' at St. Aidan's RSPB

The L.O.S. had decided to have one fieldtrip this year where we hadn't planned where to go in advance, allowing us to take the weather conditions and any recent sightings into account before setting off. Well, the weather was set to be atrocious on the western side of the UK today and so heading east was the only real choice if we were to stay dry and have a chance of a decent day. St. Aidan's RSPB in west Yorkshire quickly became the destination.

We hung around until the moon came out at around 4pm in the hope that we'd see some of the Short-eared Owls that are currently here, but unfortunately none of them showed up for us today.

A total of 51 species were seen or heard during the day, so not a bad trip at all.

Star Attraction at St. Aidan's RSPB

This little male Bearded Tit has become the star attraction at St. Aidan's RSPB near Leeds recently. It's a fearless little bird and will often pass very close to your feet as it picks up seed heads from the margins of the causeway path between two water courses.

But just like so many small birds that are actively feeding in reeds or other vegetation, it's very hard to get a clear photograph most of the time.  My best photo-opportunites today were looking straight into the sun which always provides a challenge in terms of exposure.  The shot below is probably the best I got of the whole bird.

Here's a more tightly cropped version of the same photo, I'm not sure which one I prefer, but probably the original one.

So here are a few more partial shots taken in the four hours I was there:

 Here's a few other shots I took whilst I was there:

Day 1 - St. Aidan's RSPB and Fairburn Ings RSPB

The final L.O.S. fieldtrip of the season is to the fabulous Bempton Cliffs RSPB nature reserve in east Yorkshire. Although I've travelled there and back in a single day on many occasions,  as I've got my motorhome back on the road I've decided to spend a few days there and tie it in with the RSPB boat trip from Bridlington Harbour.

So, with my tickets for the boat trip booked online,  today I set off for Grange Farm caravan and motorhome site in the Flamborough area, which is equidistant between Bridlington and Bempton.  But I was never going to travel all that distance without stopping somewhere on the way first, and the RSPB reserves at St. Aidan's in Swillington and Fairburn Ings seemed to be as good as anywhere for  visit, without needing to go too far off track.

My main and only target at St. Aidan's RSPB was to get some shots of the Sand Martins which I'd seen just starting to gather on my last visit in April.  A man-made nesting bank has been created on one of the pools and that's where I was heading.  However, I couldn't resist having a quick look for  one of the resident Little Owls on the huge coal dragline parked permanently outside the new visitor centre there.  Unfortunately I didn't see them today, but I did get this nice Kestrel instead.

To be continued ....

Another trip St. Aidan's RSPB

Readers of this blog, if there are any, may remember a post entitled 'Black Tuesday' in which I related a disastrous day for me in West Yorkshire when I broke my newly acquired 500mm lens in two after the tripod holding it fell over. Well, it was here at St. Aidan's RSPB that it happened and today I was venturing back for the first time since that fateful day due to the presence of a rare bird - a Caspian Tern.

If I ever decide to go for a rarity, it has to have been present for a day or more in the locality or else I won't bother.  This bird has apparently been on a UK-wide tour over recent weeks having been seen in South Wales, North Lancashire, Northamptonshire and now in West Yorkshire where it has been for two or three days. This is known because the bird is wearing a red leg ring.

After spending half an hour or so at the Fleet Lane bird hide which overlooks Astley Lake at St. Aidan's, I decided to head for the east end of the Main Lake where the bird was last seen today.  This was quite a trek carrying camera gear but the paths were very good in the main.  My first stop was at a viewpoint which I now know is called 'The Warren' and it was here that I had my first distant glimpses of the bird which was on a thin gravel spit.  But this place was much too far for photographs, so I headed on down the rough track which lead to a bit of headland from where much better views could be had.

Here I met Jason Higgins and a couple of other people and we had a good chat about things whilst the bird stayed on the ground on the spit at the water's edge. As well as some Common Terns with their newly fledged young, Black-headed Gulls, Mallards, a Carrion Crow and two Cormorants, there was also a Garganey present and there can't be too many times you get a Caspian Tern and a Garganey in the same shot.

The Caspian Tern took off a couple of times before returning to the same spot, but the third time it was clearly heading off back to Astley Lake. So we all left too. We popped in the Warren again briefly where there was a distant drake Scaup in amongst some Tufted Ducks, but we didn't stop for long.

The bird had returned to Astley Lake and was located on one of the gravel islands before it started a circle of the lake, staying distant all the time. It then flew back towards Main Lake but there was no way any of us were going to walk back all the way down there and so I spent the rest of my time at St. Adian's overlooking Astley Lake chatting with Jason and a friend of his called Gary Vause.

Whilst we were doing so we had several fly pasts by a Black Tern which was starting to lose its colour as well as young Peregrine Falcon which foolishly tried to grab a Black-headed Gull off the water, failing miserably and scattering the flock in every direction.

When the Caspian Tern returned and started circling the lake again I missed the best shot of the day because I was talking to Jason as it flew past fairly close - Gary got it though and it's the best shot I've seen of this bird - it's on his Flickr site.

So I'll have to make do with with what I got which aren't too bad as record shots. I've even doctored one of them to remove the Black-headed Gull behind it.