December starts....

Each month in my bird recording I start a new monthly list....at the top a section of birds that I see in the garden....this is what I started out to do, make a record of garden visitors....and then I realised there were birds that I saw from the garden that never came into it,...things like the ducks and cormorant and heron and the gulls which fly past but which I would never expect to come down though the gulls have made it once... and there are days when regular visitors come close but don't actually make it down so they come in here too, and then finally in the local birds list are the birds of the immediate area which I see when I am out walking, and these include the birds of the Pond and of the farmland and moorland. which I pass through on my regular strolls out.
The final section is for birds seen on my travels.Here the sky is the limit.

One of the things I have learned is that garden birds are not garden birds at all but that when they come to the garden they are visiting from wider worlds....for example I have seen blackbirds in hedgerows, on agricultural land, on pasture, on moorland and on the gravel banks beside a river. It sounds so obvious until you realise that you have never acknowledged it,

Secondly I have learned never to be surprised by what you find,,, I have had some wonderful surprises in my local area: on the pond a Little ringed plover,on the moorland edge, Whinchat and Spotted Flycatcher....and off the edge of the farmland, Red Grouse and Pheasant

Thirdly I have learned that if I want to take photographs the camera is useless zipped into its bag,just as useless as if I had left it at home...so sometimes I carry it from start to finish and don't take a shot but at others I have caught wonderful shots of little owl and supremely on this patch the Curlew,

Fourthly I have learned that it isn't all wonderful. I have seen a Moorhens' nest wrecked, and rebuilt finally flooded out, I have seen Lapwing and Curlew nests raided by Crows,and heard of even more harrowing behaviour by Magpies....and I have seen broods of ducklings reduced to nothing by predation.How often have I said that it is a good job that every egg laid does not go onto to become a mature bird or we would be totally flooded out by birds but it is hard to see it to happen to birds you have been watching and rejoicing in.

Fifthly other people can be a wonderful source of information, as to what is around in the area at any given time but don't believe everything you hear. I was told of the tawny owl in a particular field....now of course it was possible that there had been a Tawny Owl there, but when I went there,what was on show was a little Owl. I was told that on the pond the Heron lived there 24/7, certainly not true, and that the Heron visited every morning something I am unable to refute....and there is a whole list of sightings the half of which would make my patch a birders paradise.Then I suppose it is in a way,garden, village,pasture, pond and ditch and the open moors...a bit of almost everything except the seahore and ploughland and a range of birds to match.It's a greatplace to be.

Finally a very simple lesson,Keep eyes and ears open.If you don't look, you won't see.The number of times I have seen something wonderful and others have just passed it by not noticing...has often made me wonder what I have missed because I have not looked, Why just this morning in the garden I could quite easily have missed the Wren....its a tiny tiny bird though quite distinct and it does have a big big voice. The biggest thrill for me is to hear a bird song and then having heard it to look for it and spot it.
Birding: its a fantastic passtime.Whatever did I do before I discovered it?