Happy New Year and a review of the 2017.

Well 2017 ended with a bit of a whimper with a household full of flu!
2017 was our first full year in our new house and my first year birding a new patch. With 102 species being recorded its looking pretty good! 100 of those species have been recorded from the house with only Kingfisher and Barn Owl being logged elsewhere in the village. One of the undoubted highlights has been the resident pair of Little Owls followed closely by a pair of Hobbies that spent a couple of weeks displaying before moving off elsewhere to breed.

Our annual jaunt to the northern isles again took us to Fair Isle where, although we didn't find any major rarities this year, the sheer grandeur of the place and the spectacle of migration made it a memorable trip.

As far as county ticks I managed only one this year - Pallid Harrier.  Blue Rock Thrush was the first addition of 2017 to my British list followed by Western Swamphen (after the Minsmere bird we saw in 2016 was accepted). I had to wait until the autumn to catch up with another - Cedar Waxwing on St Agnes where we had a memorable day trip that included Cliff Swallow and Isabelline Wheatear as well as the Waxwing!

See here for a trip report.

Hilbre has had to take a backseat this year due to other commitments and I didn't get across to the island as much as I would have liked. I did manage to get out for most of the SCAN trips to N Wales and Puffin Island as well as a memorable trip to Formby to catch and colour flag Knot.