We Did It! (Here are some stats for you to enjoy)

I can't imagine that there are many birders that don't like a statistic or two.  

We tick, we research, we list, we update our lists, we compete, we correct, we study, we make new lists. So enjoying a good bit of data collection and analysis kind of comes with the territory.

Now the Warwick 100 team have hit (and exceeded) our target for 2022, I thought I'd do a bit of research into previous years to compare and contrast.

We started recording sightings as a team in Warwick in 2017.  Although we kept personal lists then, we didn't publish a Warwick total for the year.  We did spot some pretty special birds, however, including a ring ousel, several redstarts, wheatears and chats.

So here's some data from when our official records began...

   

Year	Total bird species recorded	date we hit the 100	best birds
2018	107	30th June	pied flycatcher, osprey
2019	113	5th June	Bewick's swan, whimbrel
2020	115	19th April	cuckoo, manx shearwater
2021	116	9th April	hoopoe, jack snipe, pintail
2022	102 so far	7th May	nothing of any note...yet!

It has taken longer to get to the 100 this year - sadly, our most prolific birder hasn't been able to put so many hours in.  This also means the heady heights of double figures past the hundred is probably out of reach for 2022.  We missed a fair few of the early Spring migrants we would normally have ticked (hopefully we can pick them up later in the year) and we really haven't seen anything out of the ordinary to get excited about yet.

What we are doing though, is adding more statistics toward the Warwick 100's historical records.  Adding more data that can be poured over but, more importantly, having fun as a team while doing it.  

We have a social get together planned to celebrate hitting the 100 and to put a few names to faces for those who haven't met yet.  And, you never know, something amazing might fly over the pub garden to add to the list...we'll keep you informed!

Lizzy

We are looking forward to celebrating hitting the hundred!

A bad case of Missing Bird Syndrome!

It's great to see new bird sightings from across the country all over Twitter, now that spring has firmly sprung, with even the Warwick 100 adding three birds to our tally in the last two days (reed warbler, swift and whinchat).  But, like us, there must be many birders with some really obvious, and quite annoying, gaps in their year lists so far.  

This could be for a variety of reasons.  Finding time to bird in busy lives, ongoing impacts of Covid, loss or change of patch habitats, unusual weather conditions or, sometimes, just sheer bad luck.  It took me a month to see a kingfisher this year - usually a daily sighting along the River Avon in winter.  Bullfinch didn't make its way onto the Warwick 100 list until Valentine's Day and took even longer for me - I only saw my first last week!  Missing Bird Syndrome (MBS) can be nasty...

Even Gary Prescott (The Biking Birder) hasn't been immune to MBS.  He is already up against it by birding completely carbon-free, as he attempts to become the 2022 Big Green Big Year European champion.  In addition, he has had to balance his cycling around the country with family commitments in the Midlands, charity work and, more recently, a bad back.  So far, he's seen a very impressive 198 birds, but had to wait far longer in the Wyre Forest than previous years to finally see a wood warbler, just three days ago!  We're pleased he found his missing bird and wish Gary all the best and lots of luck for the rest of his challenge.

Looking at the Warwick 100's list of 'still to finds', it can be broken into sections...

Birds we should absolutely have seen by now (MBS) - barn owl, brambling, little egret, little owl, golden plover, lapwing, shoveler.

Birds we had last year that we should see again soon - common sandpiper, common tern, garden warbler, hobby, little ringed plover, redstart, spotted flycatcher, yellow wagtail.

Birds seen before that may turn up again - cuckoo, jack snipe, Mediterranean gull, pintail, shelduck, great egret.

One-offs.  Seen before - not expecting to again - Bewick's swan, bittern, greenshank, hoopoe, manx shearwater, osprey, pied flycatcher, ring ousel, whimbrel, white-fronted goose.

The Warwick 100 team bird purely for fun.  It really doesn't matter if we don't beat last year's total and it really doesn't matter if we don't get a repeat of some of the amazing birds above.  With only a small window of opportunity in Warwick during Spring and Autumn passages and limited habitats, we will always be up against it spotting the migrants, but hopefully we can cure our case of Missing Bird Syndrome with some of the regular and resident birds soon! 

😉

Lizzy

Biking Birder VI - 2022 - Another Green Birding UK Year (bikingbirder2016.blogspot.com)