In my defence a fair few things - mostly work related, have severely curtailed my birding, but hopefully the worst is behind me and I can start to get out a bit more.
First of all I suppose I'd better give a brief update on what's happened (birdwise) to me in the last year. Autumn 2012 was pretty good with some decent self-finds. A Lesser Yellowlegs at Kingsmill Lake kicked things off last September. It sounds silly, but I was initially pretty disappointed that it wasn't a Wood Sand as that would have been a site tick having seen the previous Lesser 'legs only a few months before - told you it sounded silly!
In October I found two new birds for the area. When I tell you they were Red-throated Pipit and Barred Warbler you'll understand just why I call it the "Empty Corner." The Barred Warbler actually caused a mini twitch as it was one of the most eagerly anticipated new birds for Caradon. A couple of Yellow-broweds rounded off the Autumn nicely. I thought I'd found a Ring-necked Duck at Siblyback in November but unknown to me at the time someone else had seen it a couple of days before- drat!
The winter was pretty uneventful except for the fact that the constant rain washed away a large part of the cliff at Hannafore, taking with it most of the cover used by wintering (and breeding) birds. A previous photo I posted of the flute playing chap and the dancing Spaniards shows an area which now no longer exists. Hopefully in time it will all recover, but for now it's a sad sight.
Into 2013 and things haven't changed much. I'm still not getting out as often as I wish - save for the regular WeBS counts. However, it's now October and I'm on leave so can get to Rame every day (well almost) - so check back to find out what I did on my holidays!
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