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)
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