2026 Yearlist

  January Week 3 Week 3 was a mixed bag, some failures to go out, and less pretty weather than the first two weeks, plus a bit of a dip at broadsands means I only managed 6 year ticks this week.  Black Redstart at Roundham Gardens, Jan 15th Luckily at least some of the additions were relatively quality with black redstart, black-necked grebe, & razorbill. Black-necked Grebe on the Mill Pool, Jan 16th View of the Dart, from Stoke Gabriel On January 21st we visited Brixham harbour in some unfriendly weather, there were alot of fish in the harbour and even more birds! Maybe the rough weather brought the fish in? Gannets, shags, cormorants, kittiwakes, guillemots, divers, gulls, and seals, all chaotically feeding. Plus personal record counts of 90+ gannet, 90+ shag, and 30+ great northern divers, all in the harbour. Great Northern Diver taken by Kiera, Jan 19th Shag taken by Kiera, Jan 19th Highlights of the week - black redstart, black-necked grebe, purple sandpiper, razorbil...

Week 2 A bit of a slow week birding-wise, but one decent outing to the exe made for a sufficient return of species. Linnets in scrub at Dawlish Warren, Jan 9th Very distant Sanderlings in the Bight Precisely three quiet visits to Dawlish Warren somehow failed to yield a cirl bunting, but a couple yearticks were seen. And Kiera found a velvet scoter! Red-throated Diver off the Warren, Jan 10th On January 12th we visited Exminster marshes and walked from there to Starcross, seeing 77 species throughout the course of the day, making it the highest day count of 2026 so far White-fronted Goose at Turf, Jan 12th Highlights of the week included white-fronted goose, velvet scoter, spotted redshank, red-breasted merganser, water rail, grey plover, golden plover, bar-tailed godwit, knot, marsh harrier, sanderling, common scoter & red-throated diver Other wildlife - A random House Mouse spotted by Kiera from the bus was an unusual species to pick up House Mouse in Teignmouth, Jan 13th Seawatc...

After 2025’s “big year” failure due to not passing driving I didn’t really have any major plans for 2026, but out of nowhere I got some motivation to really give it a go right before new year. I think that pre-new years feeling got me excited for a new list, and last year’s small count of 177 despite trying in both winter and early autumn showed me that if you “leave it till you can drive” you won’t see much at all. With plans of finding somewhere to live and going to uni this year I don’t intend to try any crazy yearlist, but I think I’ll defo give it a better go than 2025! So I set out with considering the context, a fairly lofty target of 100 species of bird in the first week. Perhaps unsurprisingly on the final hurdle of the week I fell far short, hoping for 7 yearticks I only managed 2! So my bird yearlist at the end of week one now sits at 95 species, just falling below my best of 99 species in my first week of 2023. I dipped far more rare birds than I saw, but the highlights I d...