Right, get a stiff drink ready Ken , here comes the 'abridged version' you've been longing for
:
As dusk is falling and New Year’s Eve promises to be a busy non-birding day it’s time to bore everyone with a summary (also available in Kindle format😉) of our Garden List 2024, a year that provided a new record total of 96 species, I’d only reached the magic 90 once in the 8 years recording here so it was quite a leap forward!
January with 43 species (also a
new highest total) got me off to a fine start, all the usual mid-winter birds were present and correct plus four species less guaranteed in January –
Starling (usually doesn’t arrive until late Feb);
Crossbill (no two years are ever the same with them, 2024 saw them present and breeding between January and May but for the rest of the year nothing save a heard only in July);
Lesser Redpoll (less than annual here, none in 2019/20/21 for example and just the one bird on 9 January this year;
Grey Wagtail (resident but sticks to the streams and rivers most of the time, luckily for me they visit the (viewable from home) steaming dung heap nearly 1km away when there’s a lot of snow or particularly harsh frosts).
The trees unfortunately block my view of the second nearby dung heap, I would have scored a superb Garden Tick in January if it was viewable as I found two
Snowfinch feeding beside it! In the Spring and Autumn migration periods I also found Wheatear there twice, another species to escape the Garden List this year.
February was about average, adding 8 species, a mixture of residents that don’t show themselves daily such as
Goshawk and Common Treecreeper, mid-winter specialists (
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker) and the welcome return of breeding species that are absent in winter (
Red Kite, Song Thrush and White Wagtail).
March confirmed that
Short-toed Treecreeper has become an ‘altitudinal migrant’, since first appearing here in April 2020 it’s become regular and breeds before redescending to escape the cold each autumn. No surprises overall, the end of the month saw migrating
Ring Ousel, Redwing and early
Short-toed Eagle (2) on 22nd.
April started with a garden mega, only the second ever
Red-billed Chough on April Fools’ Day ( ) and the 4th record for me here of
Cormorant, a single heading ENE on 6th. A
Merlin on 30th was a bit later than usual for a Spring bird and the same day saw yet another garden mega in the form of a
Hoopoe faffing about on next door’s balcony, like the Chough only the second I’ve seen here. Two ‘so near yet so far’ species evaded the Garden List this month, a Wheatear and a Rock Bunting both found on my walks from home to the village, desperate scanning with the ‘scope on arriving home failed to refind either of them so both species remained missing this year. Until last year I considered the Rock Bunting as an annual garden visitor, usually feeding with Yellowhammers during Spring or Autumn, but both 2023 and 2024 have drawn a blank with this one, frustrating as I’ve found them not far from home each year.
May is when the telescope starts getting more use, without it I wouldn’t have found
Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush display flying on the Sulens mountain to our south (from the same tree as in 2023!) and it helped me home in on
Red-footed Falcons on two different dates (2nd and 3rd records for ‘the garden’, all records in May). Amazingly, a second
Hoopoe for the year briefly appeared on 18th. The immature
Griffon Vultures arrived at the end of the month, just as the flocks of sheep were taken up to their mountain summer homes……
The 30th brought my 4th record of
Pygmy Owl, one calling quite close from the nearest forest mid-afternoon, but it remains a ’heard only’ on the Garden List (despite my neighbours gripping me off by showing me photos of them caring cared for one once after it hit their window!). I heard another one one evening in July too.
June is when most N Hemisphere garden listers look at what new species we’re likely to see during the remaining 7 months, I usually anticipate between 10 and 15 more here, this year 14 were added:
June Alpine Swift although it arrives earlier in the Alps, it’s invariably June before we see them here.
July Bonelli’s Warbler Only the second year without a Spring record.
Black Vulture First records in 2023 were also from July, associates with the Griffons.
Hobby Late July a typical date for the first of the year.
August Pied Flycatcher We’ve only ever had two Spring records in 8 years, August is the usual month for this one.
Firecrest Like the Bonelli’s, only the second year without a Spring record.
September Garden Warbler Used to breed within earshot of the garden but sadly now just a passage visitor.
Yellow Wagtail Found as I was walking back from the village, this Garden Mega (only my 2nd here) was gracious enough to stay in the same field for two days enabling me to relocate it with the ‘scope!
Goldcrest Resident in the surrounding forest but missed earlier in the year, duly appeared in the favoured pine at the bottom of our entrance track before moving to the fruit trees near the house for a couple of visits.
Water Pipit Most years I see small flocks in the fields or flying up to the mountains in Spring (and down again in Autumn) but just one solitary bird in the rain with the sheep behind the house this time.
October Yellow-browed Warbler Bird of the year of course!🍾
Skylark Only the 3rd I’ve had here, the first was also in October, in 2018.
November Alpine Accentor Unusually none seen in the first winter period, but a nice fall of snow produced one around the house feeding on crumbled up fat balls.
December Citril Finch with none seen in the first few months of the year I was relieved to find one accompanying the feeding Chaffinch flock on 13th, meaning 2020 is the only year in which I have failed to see one here.
I attach one photo from each season plus the only Garden lifer this year.
