2023 again was a great year; Had a good start to the year with a trip to Castle Howard and managed to record two vey nice duck species for the local patch namely; Ferruginous Duck and Ring Necked Duck. From the 5th January to the 28th January me and the Mrs had a trip to Langkawi in Malaysia with a stop over in Singapore. This was a first visit to Malaysia with some amazing birds .. hopefully we’ll travel back there sometime soon.
As ever Singapore was a standout for me .. what an amazing city .. always amazes me in the 21st Century with all its technologies and infra-structure how, with some fore-thought and planning Nature can still thrive and be a huge part of every day life. Perhaps in the U.K. we could do well to study Singapore’s blueprint…. In March I had a trip down to Wales and photographed Chough for the first time in the UK. Back in May I went back to Cyprus for the first time in 20 years … lots of changes … but still managed to find some sites that I visited all those years back.Unfortunately the timing of the trip did not coincide with migration so birding was quite slow … but it was nice to hear Quail everyday on a morning walk!!
The Red Squirrel enclosure opened to the public at Castle Howard Arboretum and it was great to see these beautiful native squirrels at close quarters. Followed some nesting Barn Owls back in July for about 3 weeks and on sunny evenings it was great watching the male bird bringing back voles and mice to the nest. In September there was an early influx of Short-eared Owls to the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs and it was a great experience to watch at least 3 birds …. there were 5 …. hunting at the same time. Needless to say I think my Sd card got pretty full !!
October saw us visiting the Algarve in Portugal … a real favourite place of mine to visit … great food…great birding too.. Highlights included Honey Buzzard, Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis, Flamingo, Black-shouldered Kite, Marsh Harrier, Hoopoe, Whinchat, Azure-winged Magpie and wintering Bluethroat. On the local patch it was great to see the arrival of Waxwings in early November … bird numbers steadily increased to over 50 birds .
A new patch tick was gained in mid November with the discovery of two Red Crested Pochards at Castle Howard. In December we had a surprise visit to Scotland and on the way up it was great to see a male Smew … the first one I had seen in over 25 years. Whilst up in Scotland. we visited Loch of Lowes and saw some Red Squirrels in the wild an amazing sight!! And on December 24th North Yorkshire was treated to an early Christmas present …some Nacreous Clouds … or Mother of Pearl Clouds. Apparently these are very rare cloud formations usually only found in the Arctic regions … and apparently they are found when the sun shines through very high cloud formations and the ice crystals refract the light.
The year ended with reports of two Rough Legged Buzzards and a couple of female Hen Harriers seen on the moors above Rosedale … Looks like the start to 2024 could be very interesting.
