My Find List

I've been looking at birds since I can remember, one of my earliest recollections is seeing my first Redshank when I was five or six years old. I'm old enough to recall the 'hilarious' response to my hobby in the late seventies "...I like a bit of birdwatchin meself..Eh ..know what I mean!" Serving my birding 'apprenticeship' on the estuaries and rubbish tips of south Essex, in the eighties a magical relief from mundane Essex birding materialised for the masses after the release of 'A Twitchers Diary' . From the mid eighties I, and many like me, raced over the country in search of other peoples birds, seeing such gems as Little Whimbrel, Steller's Eider, Golden-winged Warbler, Little Bustard and pink Ross's Gull. A stint in the Royal Navy, marriage and then family brought me to reside in Norfolk where I still chased other peoples birds, but not so widely and rarely outside the county. Mid nineties I caught the migration bug and then, after becoming involved with Sheringham Bird Observatory and keeping company with the likes of Kevin Shepherd, Steve Votier and others really started to concentrate on finding my own stuff which is the current niche I'm in at the moment, staying out of the crowds (the Granborough Hill Blyth's Reed was the final nail in the coffin for me!) and pretty much doing my own thing with a great little local network.

I'm not sure what a 'reasonable' find list would be, and obviously geographically speaking within Britain they may not be comparable, but it was interesting to compile it and as can see I've been brutally honest. I surprised myself by not being able to include Jack Snipe (!) or Black-necked Grebe among others but can still gain membership to the American Landbirds in Britain Club (if it existed!)

Guidelines to the compilation of such a list are varied, and some complicated, but I have gone with the simple BUBO one that states "In short, if you come across a bird without having acted on prior information concerning the whereabouts of that specific individual of that species, we feel it can be considered self-found. " I have used the BOU list for species.

Mute swan
Bewick’s Swan
Whooper Swan
Tundra Bean Goose
Pink-footed Goose
Eurasian White-fronted Goose
Grey-lag Goose
Greater Canada Goose
Barnacle Goose
Brent Goose Dark and Pale bellied, Black Brant Sheringham 21^st Dec 1997
Egyptian Goose
Shelduck
Mandarin
Wigeon
Gadwall
Teal
Mallard
Pintail
Shoveler
Pochard
Tufted duck
Ring-necked Duck - Wroxham Broad Nov 2009
Scaup
Eider
Long-tailed Duck
Velvet Scoter
Common Scoter
Goldeneye
Smew- Essex, Abberton Reservoir, offshore Sheringham
Red-breasted Merganser
Goosander
Ruddy duck
Red Grouse - Wales
Ptarmigan
Capercaillie
Black Grouse - Wales 1984, Scottish highlands
Red-legged Partridge
Grey Partridge
Quail
Pheasant
Red-throated Diver
Black-throated Diver
Great Northern Diver
Fulmar
Sooty Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Balearic Shearwater - Sheringham B.O
Gannet
Cormorant
Shag
Bittern
Little Egret
Great White Egret - 1 offshore Sheringham Apr 14^th 2003
Grey Heron
Spoonbill
Little Grebe
Great-crested Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Slavonian Grebe
Honey Buzzard - Aylmerton
Black Kite - Sheringham B.O. May 18^th 1997, Aylmerton May 7^th 2007
Red Kite
Marsh harrier
Hen harrier
Pallid Harrier - Aylmerton May 1^st 2009
Montagu’s Harrier - Blakeney, Aylmerton
Goshawk - Blakeney fresh marsh
Sparrowhawk
Common Buzzard
Rough-legged Buzzard - River Roach Essex 1985, Aylmerton (4) Snettisham
Osprey
Kestrel
Red-footed Falcon - Cley NWT May 14^th 1992
Merlin
Hobby
Peregrine
Water Rail
Coot
Common Crane
Oystercatcher
Avocet
Little Ringed Plover
Ringed Plover tundrae ssp.
Dotterel - Sheringham B.O (2), Aylmerton
Golden Plover
Grey Plover
Lapwing
Knot
Sanderling
Little Stint
Temminck’s Stint - Cley
Pectoral sandpiper - Salthouse Sept 23^rd 2007
Curlew sandpiper
Purple sandpiper
Dunlin
Ruff
Common Snipe
Great Snipe - Sheringham B.O. Sept 9^th 2002
Woodcock
Black-tailed Godwit
Bar-tailed Godwit
Whimbrel
Curlew
Common sandpiper
Green sandpiper
Spotted Redshank
Greenshank
Marsh Sandpiper Gunton Park May 20^th-22^nd 1992
Wood sandpiper
Redshank
Turnstone
Grey Phalarope - offshore Sheringham
Pomerine Skua
Arctic Skua
Long-tailed Skua - offshore Sheringham, West Runton
Great Skua
Kittiwake
Black-headed Gull
Little gull
Mediterranean Gull
Common Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull argenteus, argentatus
Yellow-legged Gull
Iceland Gull - Dungeness, Kent Apr 1983, Scotland
Glaucous Gull - Sheringham, Sidestrand
Great Black-backed Gull
Little Tern
Black Tern
Sandwich Tern
Common Tern
Arctic Tern
Roseate Tern - Blakeney Point
Guillimot
Razorbill
Black Guillimot - Sheringham
Little Auk
Puffin
Feral Pigeon
Stock Dove
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Turtle Dove
Ring-necked Parakeet - Hockley, Essex
Cuckoo
Barn Owl
Little owl
Tawny Owl
Long-eared owl
Short-eared Owl
Nightjar
Common swift
Kingfisher
Wryneck - Sheringham B.O, Cromer, Blakeney point
Green Woodpecker
Great-spotted Woodpecker
Lesser-spotted Woodpecker
Golden Oriole - migrant Sheringham B.O.
Red-backed Shrike - Spring and autumn
Great Grey Shrike - New forest Oct29^th 1980 (!), Sheringham, Roughton
Jay
Magpie
‘Western’ Jackdaw
Chough
Rook
Carrion Crow
Hooded crow
Raven
Goldcrest
Firecrest
Blue Tit
Crested Tit
Great Tit
Coal tit
Willow Tit
Marsh Tit
Bearded Tit
Short-toed lark - Sheringham B.O. May1^st 1999
Woodlark - Aylmerton, Sheringham B.O.
Skylark
Shore Lark
Sand Martin
Swallow
House Martin
Long-tailed Tit
Yellow-browed Warbler
Wood warbler - Norfolk
Chiffchaff colybita, abientenus
Willow warbler acredula
Blackcap
Garden warbler
Barred Warbler - Sheringham B.O., Cley NWT
Lesser Whitethroat
Whitethroat
Dartford warbler - New Forest 1980
Grasshopper Warbler
Icterine Warbler - SheringhamB.O.
Sedge warbler
Reed warbler
Waxwing
Nuthatch
Eurasian Treecreeper
British Wren
Starling
Dipper
Ring Ouzel
Blackbird
Fieldfare
Song Thrush
Redwing
Mistle Thrush
Spotted flycatcher
European Robin
Nightingale - Pretty Corner Woods
Red-spotted Bluethroat - Blakeney Point May20^th 1994
Black Redstart
Common Redstart
Whinchat
Stonechat -
Northern Wheatear leucorrhoea ‘Greenland Wheatear’
Red-breasted Flycatcher - Sheringham B.O.
Pied flycatcher
Dunnock
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Yellow Wagtail Blue-headed Wagtail’, ‘Grey-Wagtail’ -SheringhamB.O.
Citrine Wagtail Northrepps 26 Sept 2010

Grey Wagtail

Pied Wagtail White wagtail

Richard’s Pipit -several, including 2 spring

Tawny Pipit - Sheringham BO May 8th 2006

Tree Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Rock Pipit

Chaffinch

Brambling

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Siskin

Linnet

Twite

Lesser Redpoll

Mealy redpoll

Coues’s Arctic Redpoll - Gunton Park Feb 19th1992, Pretty Corner woods Feb 3^rd 1996

Common Crossbill

Bullfinch/ Northern Bullfinch - Sidestrand Dec17^th 2010

Hawfinch

Yellow-rumped Warbler - St. Mary’s, Isle of Scillies Oct10^th 1985

Snow Bunting

Lapland Bunting

Yellowhammer

Ortolan Bunting - Blakeney Point may11th1993,

Sheringham B.O. Sept19^th 1995

Cirl Bunting

Reed Bunting

Little Bunting - Morston Nov 1st 1993

Corn Bunting

Black Kite

Pallid Harrier

Siberian Stonechat - West Runton Sept24^th-25^th 2008

Citrine Wagtail

Tawny Pipit

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