2026 Yearlist

Week 2 Apion cf. frumentarium Week 2 was rather uneventful in the way of rare birds, with 4 (2 successful) outings for some slightly unusual birds. The Valentine’s Day outing to search for dippers in Exeter was predictably a fail, although Kiera added green woodpecker to her yearlist at ludwell valley park and we saw a water rail and grey wagtail. Searching for Yellowhammer in Brixham Broadsands provided us with unfortunately very brief, but decent scope views of a female brambling which was a lifer for Kiera and my first in 3 years. It certainly wasn’t easy to pick out amongst 100-200 chaffinches! Broadsands, Feb 12th Plus one other trip to Dartington & Totnes got us a couple of oddities. (Will switch out BOC’s when I can get pics off camera) Mandarin at Dartington, Feb 8th Green Sandpiper at Dartington, Feb 8th Bird highlights of the week - brambling, green sandpiper, mandarin duck, razorbill, cirl bunting, skylark, water rail, firecrest, siskin, bullfinch, cetti’s warbler, &...

  Week One Not the most productive week but saw some lovely species and did the first proper bugging of the year in the form of a couple hours of graveyard-scanning. Gravestones can often provide overwintering shelter for invertebrates - particularly ladybirds, and I think 4 ladybirds of 3 species isn’t too bad Orange Ladybird ( Halyzia sedemcimguttata ) Unfortunately I dipped on yellow-legged gull at dawlish warren, but that hardly seems surprising considering my history of looking for gulls there! On the positive note we had a nice trip to otter estuary and a very productive trip to decoy country park, newton abbot. Treecreepers at Decoy Country Park, Feb 1st Grey Wagtail at Decoy Country Park, Feb 1st Birding highlights of the week - spoonbill, little gull, whimbrel, cattle egret, marsh tit, treecreeper, great northern diver, firecrest, siskin, & kingfisher Other wildlife highlights - orange ladybird, two-spot ladybird, little tree worm ( s mammalis ), gorse weevil, hawthorn...

Week 4 A slightly extended week - stretching from the 22nd - 31st January. Little Gulls from Teignmouth, Jan 23rd A good start with 4 little gulls showing fantastically at teignmouth, if a little difficult to photograph. Could’ve gone out more throughout the week, but a few more quality trips and additions made for a decent finish off to January. The Duckpond, Exmouth, Jan 26th I achieved my first lifer of the year, my nemesis bird the caspian gull! Spotted on a pontoon in Brixham harbour by Kiera after an awful journey to get there - After countless dips on the species I wasn’t really expecting to see it. Caspian Gull at Brixham Harbour, Jan 27th UK bird #243 for myself.  Kiera and I also found our own little gulls off sprey point from the train and saw some parrots (hard to do in these parts). Ring-necked Parakeets near Exmouth, Jan 26th The week was nicely finished off with my best views of black-throated diver, and even got a photo! Black-throated Diver in Brixham, Jan 30th Cas...