The start of my birding career at 12 years of age was mostly around the village with Shibden Valley, Queensbury Station and Ogden as my three main venues with my lifelong buddy Howard Creber as my birding companion.This gave me an excellent foothold to local birding in later life still remembering the hot spot areas and the areas that failed to produce, but although the venues had hardly changed the birds had changed considerably. As an example, Yellowhammer, Redstart and Lesser Whitethroat were a common sighting and we all know the position of these species today.
In later years, with a new driving license and my own car I did as we all have and chased around a wider area looking for new species making regular visits to the East Yorkshire coast, Norfolk ,and reserves such as Blacktoft and Fairburn on a weekly basis but once I had got this out of my system I settled back to true local birding which has been my passion ever since covering an area of up to 10 miles from my home in Queensbury.
Local birding is by no means an easy task and involves a lot of footwork in all weather conditions throughout the seasons and is not for the birder wanting a high score on his annual tick list, but the rewards, seldom as they may be, are great. The word rarity takes on a different meaning when you find a bird in your local area that may be common elsewhere but could be a mega for your patch.
Over the years you build up a picture of your area knowing what should be where and when so anything unusual , such as displaced birds or high numbers soon stand out and start alarm bells ringing. Several trips out can produce nothing more than wet clothes and an empty camera but I rarely get disillusioned as I set off with an open mind and a low expectancy and more time than not something turns up to make the trip worthwhile. As I always remind myself, if you don,t get out there you,ll get nothing.
Queensbury is not the best of birding areas being 1150ft above sea level and usually in the fog or gales but the advantages are great. Up here in the gods you can see for miles in all directions, even being able to see coast to coast with the Humber Bridge to the east and Southport to the west visible on a clear day. This of course is a great advantage during visible migration time in the autumn.
Admittedly , many of my rarities have been seen as fly overs but having said that, as with any local area, anything can turn up like the Avocet that dropped down into a local empty reservoir staying a few days in 1995 and another more recent at a local reservoir in 2019, not a rare bird but to get one in your local area, now that is a mega!
I remember the April morning in 1998 when I walked up Soil Hill for Little Ringed Plover which I had spotted the previous weekend. As I got to the summit , a wader with a call which was unfamiliar to me, flew up and landed about 30 yards away. As I got the bins on it I gasped to find it was a Dotterel which luckily stayed the following day allowing several birders to see it.
Two years previous to that I stumbled on a Purple Sandpiper in the same area and despite a howling gale that also stayed the following day for all to see.
I,ve had Gannet, Yellow Browed Warbler, Firecrest, Snow Bunting, Lapland Bunting, Shore Lark, Black Redstart, Yellow Legged Herring gull, Great white Egret, Caspian gull, Ospreys, Shrikes and Phalaropes to name but a few. Who needs to go away birding when the birds eventually come to you. All you need to do is get out there and have plenty patience.
I,m not knocking birders travelling away for birds, this has to be done to cover all the species available to us, but save a little time to check out your local area, you,ll be amazed just what it can produce and the rewards are great. There,s no better feeling than finding a mega a mile or so away from your own home.
A few of the Megas found locally :-
A better day weather wise today with full grey sky cover and a cool E>4 bringing some light rain showers.
A walk down Oats Royd produced nothing special with the usual Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs
along with Long Tailed Tit and Chaffinch. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming whilst a Green Woodpecker was calling down in the valley.
At least the long read above will pass you a bit of time on.
BS