The closing stages

After success last weekend adding Storm Petrel and Spotted Sandpiper to the non-motorised year list, I managed a couple more year ticks in the weekend just gone. Best was a Snow Bunting at Studland but I also made the effort to get down to Weymouth in the hope of seeing a lingering Ferruginous Duck - it didn't appear, but consolation came with my first Red-throated Diver of the year, keeping company with a couple of Great Northerns way out in a flat calm Weymouth Bay.

Snow Bunting, Studland

Snow Bunting, Studland

At this time of year, with not many weeks left until 2023 draws to a close, and the chances of getting out on the bike before or after work pretty much eliminated by the lengthening nights, thoughts inevitably turn to the number on which the non-motorised year list might land by the time 31st December comes around. The Diver brought my 2023 tally to 214 species travelling under my own steam, exactly half way between the 210 I had seen by the same date in 2021 and the figure of 218 I had reached by this point in 2022. 

Snow Bunting, Studland

Snow Bunting, Studland

But in 2021 I had a belting end to the year, picking up scarcities/rarities like Red-necked Grebe, Little Auk, Black-throated Diver, Pallas's Warbler, Velvet Scoter, Hawfinch, Ferruginous Duck, Tundra Bean Goose, White-fronted Goose and Cirl Bunting. The good birds kept coming and everything I went for fell into place. By contrast, last year, from this point on, all I could manage was a bit of low hanging fruit (Water Pipit, Woodcock, Jack Snipe), a Snow Bunting and an American Wigeon over the border in Hampshire.  

Snow Bunting, Studland

Snow Bunting, Studland

So whether 2023 closes on a high will very much depend on whether it ends like last year or the year before. Most of those 2021 scarcities (except Cirl Bunting and Velvet Scoter which I saw in January) remain absent from this year's list, and there remains some low-hanging fruit to be plucked in the form of Jack Snipe, Bittern and Black-throated Diver. The Whooper Swan and grey geese which turned up during a cold snap late in 2021 and which stuck around into 2022 have not materialised thus far in 2023, and my seawatching efforts have also had mixed fortunes - Sooty Shearwater and Storm Petrel were full-fat 'bike ticks'; but I haven't been able to muster any skuas other than Arctic, nor a Leach's Petrel, Sabine's Gull, Little Auk or Iceland Gull. 

Snow Bunting, Studland

Snow Bunting footprints in the sand

So my own record of 224 is certainly not unassailable - but it's going to need a cold snap, or some big storms, and probably both, to get there. With the extreme weather being seen globally and locally, it's possible - though I'm certainly not willing that to happen (well, except for perhaps the cold snap of a 'normal' winter), and would happily see the list stick on 214 in exchange for a stable climate!

Red-throated Diver in Weymouth Bay against the backdrop of the Jurassic Coast