Waxwing Blogging

 A nice sunny lunchtime walk to the Pond Field today when, on route I noticed a car parked on the roadside opposite the pink rowan tree. As I passed I said to the occupants, 'Waxwings?' They replied that there were three birds still and as I watched the birds flew up into a birch across the road. I said there had been 40 odd last week but most had moved on. 

The couple of observers were on holiday from Yorkshire and asked if I wrote 'the blog'. 'Yes, I do'  I replied. They went on to say they had hoped to see some Waxwings on their visit and had googled them, then found my blog that gave them an idea where to look.  Isn't that nice!  Sometimes I wonder what the point of the blog is, but its these occasional little interactions that make it more worthwhile. 

I'm sure they enjoyed the birds, after all, its not often you find a tree with Waxwings that doesn't have a togger hiding below it.

On Monday in foul weather conditions, 9 Waxwings dropped into our village hall car park for 5 minutes before flying off back towards the rowan, so there may be other birds still hanging around somewhere.

We continued our walk down to the Pond Field. The pond sluice was open to reduce levels as the lane into our village was like a river on Monday. 2 Teal, 2 Mallard and a Little Grebe were the only things present but the Chiffchaff was still calling in cover in the wet wood.

All change...

 I smell change in the air? Or maybe its the stench of a dying social media platform due to the mismanagement of an egotistical madman? 

With Twitter (up yours Elon) being degraded faster than the NHS, there is the makings of a mass exodus of people I had previously enjoyed following. They have now left the building, as it were.  

It seems however, that there is a surprising benefit of this in that, coincidentally, some of these good folks are also top bloggers with the likes of Gavin Haig and Alastair Forsyth showing some renewed blogging vigour after the demise of Twitter accounts. Still hanging on there in the Twitterverse, formerly the most regular of bloggers, North Downs and Beyond big hitter,  Steve Gale, has also indicated a return to past form.   I wonder if there are other hitherto unknown bloggers out there ready to follow suite. We might even get more from our local stars like Ipin at Druridge and Alan Tilmouth. Its looking good .

Getting back to the job in hand, today I had hoped to be blogging about some tasty local patch birds after last nights stiff Easterly with heavy rain. In years gone by, a forecast like this below a big high over Scandinavia would surely have dropped in some birds to hunt through for things a bit more scarce.

Some observers will say that when recording natural history sightings, a nil count is just as important as a large number. If that is the case, today has been brilliant.

I got up shortly after first light and after coffee and breakfast headed out on foot for a walk along the coast path to see what goodies had been grounded. An hour and 15 minutes later I was back having seen exactly nothing. No Willow Warblers, Pied Flycatchers or Garden Warblers and certainly no icing on the top with a spare Wryneck, Barred Warbler or 'Icky' ( Icterine Warbler). The only things in the book were 2 Whimbrel N, 6 Swifts S, 3 Sand Martins over the village and a pair of Stonechats feeding a third brood.

When I posted this outcome on Twitter, responses said 'Pied Fly at Seaton Point according to Birdguides'. There had been a Garden Warbler there too and a handful of birds on Holy Island and down at St Mary's Island but that's not the point. That's more of a Shifting Baseline Syndrome. What should there have been? As mentioned above, 30 years ago, a forecast like this would have dropped in double figures of these commoner species and an odd individual of the rarer ones too. For example in 1995 early Sept an hour lunch break from work had 20+ Redstarts and 30+ Pied Flycatchers at Newbiggin. Another day in 2002 had a range of rarer and commoner species that would seem fanciful in today's times.

I hope I am wrong but I fear the days of having to hastily arrange a day off work to enjoy 'fall conditions' may be over...

My only patch Icterine warbler, Sept 2008.

New Blog Link - Mark Newsome at Whitburn.

 Hi all, I have added the new blog by Mark Newsome to the side bar, right. Mark is a great seawatcher, based at Whitburn Obs on the Sunderland Coast. This site is a great help to Northumberland birders, as they call the seabirds as they pass, north, and we can try to stake them out miles up the coast. Sometimes it works, others it doesn't, but we are grateful all the same.

Cheers Mark... 

2020 vision.

A look at my 2019 blogging activity shows that I posted the least number of times since the blog began 13 years ago. Now that it is at rock bottom, the only way to go in 2020 is onwards and upwards, so before blogging, I'll need some material to blog about... What to do this year, well...

1. The Patch List will be ongoing, not only to keep up with Steve at North Downs and Beyond, but to give some focus locally that can be done whenever I have a minute spare.

2. Its not just about birding here at chez Stewchat, I will be mothing, butterflying, spidering, botanising, fungusing and any other 'ing' that will draw me into the natural world.

3. Try to do some more drawing and notebook stuff in the field. I must push this!

4. Out and About. Nowadays I mainly concentrate on VC68 or North Northumberland, the area between the River Coquet to the south and the River Tweed in the North. There are endless opportunities for new discoveries in the very underwatched area for natural history (other than birding).

5. Farther afield. Mmm, now...I do fancy a trip north for one very special moth but that will be kept in the planning stage for the moment, plus there will be holiday cottages in Suffolk and Scotland hopefully where some unfamiliar faces can be found.

And that is about it really, there is always something of interest to look for. I recently read someone on Twitter say that they had 'lost their birding mojo'. This came from someone who hasn't been birding for very long either so what can you say to that. 

As a good friend once said to me about another, 'Stewart, they aren't birders like us', and I knew exactly what was implied. For some, natural history observation is a hobby to pick up and drop whenever the going gets tough. For others it is a lifelong quest that can never be satiated. The possibilities are infinite in the relatively short span of a human lifespan.

So, in the new decade, get out there and live amongst fellow earth beings, in the sound knowledge that if your day seems quiet or near to boring, then its time you upped your game!

Happy New Decade everyone, I will definitely post more this year!

Blog rattling...

Occasionally it takes someone to speak out in order to get the wheels of reaction in motion.

Steve Gale at North Downs & Beyond posted the other day about the slow but steady decline in blogging output. This has prompted several long term writers out there to comment with their own take on things, so I might as well get it out there too.

Some of the bloggers I follow are good writers, being able to post regularly in an interesting, original, way on all matters linked to Natural History. I'm not so good at this, even this post is riding on the shoulders of giants, though I would like to be.

My blog has stood the test of time not because of my gripping content setting the world alight, no, it simply a diary type of thing, showing the stuff outside that I interact with. I can post some photos that I like, or ones that illustrate my sightings and I can show some originality with my notebooks and sketches.

I used to look forward to any comments from people and even an email or two from those interested enough to ask a question but now that mostly comes from other social media platforms.

This is where Blogger differs though. It is a much slower animal than say Facebook or Twitter ( I dont know how Instagram works). It allows reflection and roles out an actual timeline that the others don't. For me it is a source of genuine interest like a magazine or newsletter might be. Its free and you get a new one through your inbox every day to read...

I would never post something as long as this on Facebook. No one would ever read it. There might be no readers on here either but you never know, at least it remains out there, lying on the coffee table so to speak.

From my own selfish point of view, I hope the bloggers I like dont pack it in. If a regular poster misses a fortnight I am worrying about their health! 

So to all bloggers out there, never feel pressured into posting. Just relax and do what you fancy. You do have a fan out here...

[ Note -  maybe try a few lines at least monthly just to let us know you are still alive...]

Should I stay or should I go? ...

...was never really the question I posted on Twitter the other day.


My Tweet said -

'Many of you are Natural History #Bloggers. I am wondering how Twitter and Facebook has affected your blog output? I'm wondering if my blog has had its day, its been going 12 yrs with 750,000 views... Comments please.'

Now with that short sentence or two, in a second it reaches over 2,000 people. The blog could never do that, but is that really its purpose anyway? I don't think so.

What I was mostly interested in when asking the question was, has social media had the same impact on the blogs of others as it has on mine and the answer was a resounding Yes.

Out out of the responses I received from fellow bloggers the most common response by far was 'too little time' to blog when you can rattle off a few tweets in seconds. I am one of those people too. Is it true though? I think the reason we dont have time to blog ( when we used to have time) is because of all the bloody time spent on social media!

Then I looked back only as far as August 2017 when I said this  .

Rather than repeat myself, again, I'll just leave it out there. I will continue to blog as frequently as I can, and will try to cut down on the others... Mmmmm...