Mainly though, it is a lack of motivation at this time, we always seem to be busy!
If we get a spell of snowy, cold, sunny weather between now and Christmas I might just awake from my pseudo hibernation.
I am planning what to do in 2015 now. So far I think there might be a notebook resurgence and I'll try and give myself a right shake up on the patch birding front. We'll see.
Anyway, don't fear, I haven't jacked it all in, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
5 comments:
Hi Stewart - I'm local patching next year. Why don't we predict a bird target (based on honesty!) and then see who gets the highest percentage increase on that target? Winner takes nowt but a bit of smugness...
Hi Steve, Yes ok I'm up for that. You can see my patch on the map in the side bar. My totals for the last 5 years are 2009 - 147, 2010 - 162, 2011 - 154, 2012 - 152, 2013 - 134 and 2014 - 127.
That is an average of - 146 sp over the period.
Ok one may scoff at this..... But what is 'patching'?
OK then - your base-line figure is 146 and mine is 110. That might sound low, but apart from a couple of village ponds have no water bodies at all...
John - Patching is the term we use for local patch bird watching. A local patch is somewhere close to home that we do most of our day to day birding. It might be a local reservoir or ponds, bit of coast or parkland anywhere with a mix of habitat that is clearly defined by boundary, not too big ( no more than 4 sq km say). You get to learn what is regular and what is scarce here. A common bird in some places might be a rarity on your patch. Its all relative.
Steve - Great, deal done.
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