My 200 Bird Year
If you’ve been taking our #My200BirdYear challenge in 2020, then this is when things start to get serious!
If you’re closing in on 200 species, you will need to do one of two things, or both. Firstly, take a last hard look at your list, and make a separate list of species which you can reasonably expect to see in the rest of the year.
These will probably include winter visitors to your patch that you didn’t catch up with in the first three months of the year – everything from wildfowl, such as Wigeon or Pintail, through waders such as Snipe or Jack Snipe, to winter specialities such as Brambling (and
Jack Snipe, again!).
Having done this, you might even decide to plan a trip ip to a specific location (a seaside site, for example, or a reserve that features particular species, like the WWT’s Welney), to help you fill those gaps.
Secondly, it may be time to do a little ‘twitching’, even if only locally. Keep an eye on bird news services, or your local bird club’s website or Twitter feed, and take note of any sightings of unusual species. Great Grey Shrikes, for example, pop up all over the place ace at this time of year, and often hang around at a favoured voured site, while Waxwings always get the local grapevine humming. ming.
If you’d prefer to wait for 2021, to give yourself the best possible chance of seeing 200 bird species in a year, you can still sign up now at https://bit.ly/3ieJxoF, and then spend the rest of 2020 doing some of the groundwork for next year.
For example, most winter visitors will remain in the same areas right throughout the winter, so the next three months are a good time to take note of exactly where large concentrations of wildfowl and waders are, and to make note of elusive lusive species such as Bramblings and even Waxwings, if and when they turn up!
That will enable you to get your 2021 list off to a flying start, and you’ll be honing your skills and fieldcraft as you do.
Best of all, though, you’ll see more birds, and a greater variety of birds. Enjoy your birding and the birds!