This species is fast becoming a Somerset speciality. Indeed that’s the only British county where I’ve seen it – first at Chew Valley in 2009, then a pair last year at Blagdon and Chew (again). And the two birds down at the Somerset Levels last Tuesday were highly likely this latter pair. They’ve been on their travels though, to the South Coast and back.

So have I. Since Widewater, I returned from a long weekend with the brothers at Steyning via Selsey Bill, which was quiet apart from the year’s first red-breasted mergansers. I tried without success for the hawfinches at Eastleigh, close to Winchester, before a yomp through Denny Wood in the New Forest in the hope of woodlarks. No joy with them either.

That was all Monday, with an overnight stop in Bournemouth so that I could hit seabirds and migrants the next morning at Portland Bill. Plenty of gannets, guillemots, fulmars, wheatears, a shag and one swallow. It’s summer! Then it was a haul up to Shapwick, which also had a marsh harrier, five ruff, booming bitterns and squealing water rails.

112 species for the month – not bad.

Now Somerset is my top British county with my first ever English occurrence of this white gull. Five years have elapsed since my last sighting at Fraserburgh; only Forfar and Ullapool have also contributed records. In with a distant roost of herring and lesser black-backs and the light fading fast, the Cheddar bird was nevertheless easy to pick out in its paleness.

Earlier the same day another bout of three new species at Chew Valley took that site racing past Upton Warren. I caught up with the long-tailed duck and the flock of yellowhammers while a mistle thrush sang in the distance for a surprising addition to the list.

Another theme recently has been early birds and yesterday was no exception, apart from being exceptional. Two Sandwich terns off Widewater Lagoon at Shoreham beat my 2006 record by 25 days! True, most of my sightings have been in Scotland but this does continue a trend of migrants weeks ahead of time. The weather has certainly been crazy enough this year to encourage them. Am I alone in thinking the last few weeks have been unnatural?

Or Cat’s Back or, most prosaically of all, Black Hill. But in any case the easternmost spur of the Black Mountains, which puts it in Herefordshire and thus in England. Which is rather exciting because the bird I heard yesterday (and Allan and Heidi saw, lucky them!) was only my third English record for the species. It follows the Forest of Bowland in 2003 and somewhere in Northumberland in 2006. Both a long time ago and it’s even nearly three years since my last encounter in the Pentlands. That’s what you get for moving away from Scotland.

Lagopus lagopus, which makes red grouse the nominate species of the ptarmigans. Yup, it’s really a willow ptarmigan and not a grouse at all but not many in this country bother with that.

So, it was a good year bird and several of those have started appearing lately. Today was my earliest wheatear, on the Severn Estuary coast south of Dowlais but north of Blake’s Pools. A distant grey plover was also new for 2011. Three days back, Upton Warren had my earliest little ringed plover and not quite earliest avocets. My trip to the Midlands also brought one peep from a tawny owl at the aunt’s place in Kidderminster.

Last week at Chew Valley the spotted sandpiper was showing well, the wintering garganey was still around and the Somerset list went up by one somewhat junk bird. An Egyptian goose has been hanging out by the picnic site for a while. I didn’t go for it but it found me as I scanned the causeway end for the long-tailed duck. No duck, but the one goose.

On 178 species Somerset now ties it up with Angus, which is a county with plenty of red grouse.

Gosh, it’s been almost a week since I drove south from Portishead to the Dorset coast, which proved hard to work. My indecision around Ilminster didn’t help. That’s not in Dorset, but Somerset stretches that far, and beyond through Chard. By then Bridport was my only sensible target.

That was fine. A little further on lay Abbotsbury, where a scaup had been reported. That wasn’t so fine, being closed. You can tell how this is going: nada all the way to my hotel in Bournemouth and a recovery pint at the rather excellent Goat & Tricycle. A pub with that name can’t be beat.

On the subject of scaup I finally logged the lesser scaup at Slimbridge the weekend before and that entered my English list. Also new for the Wetland Centre were redpoll and raven. Funny how common species keep adding to that tally, which now stands at 109. I can’t have been paying attention.

Anyway, carrying on from Bournemouth on the 22nd, I had a beautiful stroll round Hengistbury Head, where ravens again figured by boosting my Hampshire list. I’ve said this before: Bournemouth itself and everywhere east is for me still in Hampshire. So, Slavonian grebes in Christchurch Harbour also counted, and Brent geese there were new for the year.

Then, best for last, an entirely hopeful punt south of Shatterford in the New Forest for a reported great grey shrike. A couple of birders coming the other way late in the afternoon hadn’t seen it after a thorough search and I was left anticipating at best another decent stroll. Not a bit of it: a white blob at the top of a birch stood out in the gloaming for a splendid shrike and I was able to get close enough for cracking views.

That’s probably it for the year – 183 species – not as good as many years recently but then I haven’t been gadding off down under or living in Scotland.

From February 18:

“A beautiful, if somewhat crisp at the start, day in the foothills of the Cairngorms. There wasn’t much bird activity but the Glens are like that. I wonder if they were any better when they had trees?

“Anyway the end of the road up Glen Isla does provide a few Scots pines and a small plantation of other conifers. These held most of the day’s birds, the most notable being one brambling in amongst the numerous chaffinches. It’s always nice to see mistle thrushes too and even better to hear them sing – a rather more melancholy tune than a blackbird’s, I think.

“A few ravens cronked overhead and bothered the lone buzzard. No eagles, of course. And no red grouse this time. However, that other gamekeeper’s favourite, the magpie, did surprisingly appear – only my second sighting for Angus.”

OK, so I did return to Herriotts at Chew Valley and finally admitted the spotted sandpiper to my British list. I’d seen it enough that it couldn’t have been a common sandpiper every time. A few days later, just for good measure, the list went up again with the sharp-tailed sandpiper. I had to thank Redditch WWT not coming to the Somerset Levels for that one. Otherwise I’d have been with them.

Blagdon‘s Slavonian grebe went on to my Somerset list, but not Avon since that retained last year’s bird off Portishead. The latter did gain red-crested pochard and the red-breasted merganser that’s supposed to be pretty regular at Chew.

The middle of November was exciting and rounded off an excellent autumn for the Somerset reservoirs. I’m assuming, but not hoping, that the winter will be quieter.

At first it looked like a buzzard, scattering the wigeon, teal and pintail at this West Sussex reserve. Then it banked to show a creamy white head and its true nature. It must be said that a juvenile, and maybe a female, marsh harrier has similar colouring to a dark morph buzzard so one does need the head for a positive identification. That or a good sighting to get the harrier’s quartering behaviour.

My bird landed straightaway and disappeared behind low scrub so
I didn’t get that luxury. I wondered if it had found a meal when it didn’t reappear.

This interlude followed stunning views of a female peregrine falcon, to the extent that this crappy digishot was possible (where does the yellow fringing come from?) I had to use my iPhone because my camera now discharges batteries within minutes and is effectively dead. I’ll have to work the poker tables some to manifest funds for a new one.

Both these birds of prey were new for my Pulborough list as were a couple of snipe and a calling crossbill. I may also have seen a female at the very tip of a tree but at the distance she was hard to separate from a greenfinch.

All that was on Tuesday and to continue the raptor theme, yesterday’s trip back from Steyning brought me two red kites. Not up the A34 or along the M4 as one might suppose but through the heart of Hampshire, near Old Winchester Hill. That’s my third record in that area so they are drifting south.

And they made a raptorlicious couple of days.

Well, not exactly Bournemouth but it’s more of an eye-opener that way. Fisherman’s Walk Zig Zag, Boscombe to be precise. That is in Bournemouth Unitary Authority, which is technically not Dorset, so in my book Hampshire can reclaim it. Not that this helps the county list because it’s one of only two where I’ve seen Dartford warbler. That was at Acres Down and the other was Slapton Ley, Devon – both twelve years ago.

Twelve years! Imagine my disbelief then as I just nipped out between heavy showers to admire the clouds and light at
the Overcliff Nature Reserve and this Sylvia warbler popped up in front of my nose. In the same family as blackcap, this bird gave no cause for binoculars: its profile was so distinctive. Even so I grabbed great close-ups as it foraged through the cliff-edge gorse. It was like winning the lottery without entering.

More predictable later was dipping on the red-breasted goose at Stanpit Marsh, Christchurch. The reserve was hard to find and then its entrance path was under water. Boy, it has rained. I know: I’d driven through hail, lightning and road-rivers at Yeovil the day before.

The rest of yesterday took me to Brownhill Inclosure and Minstead (Arthur Conan Doyle‘s last resting place) in the New Forest for not much more than a flyover crossbill at the latter. I’m finally calling that a year bird after rejecting a similar call at Black Down earlier in the month. Now let’s see what’s around Steyning.

Lists are all the rage these days, especially those to tick before you die, so here’s my contribution. But with a difference: not for me the plain old best but, as a rabid lister, the locations to deliver the most varied bag of species. The concomitant geographic spread should also make this Top 10 truly British.

Close to Pokerbird WHQ, Somerset’s
Chew Valley Lake holds many freshwater species as well as the prospect of birds, chiefly herons, that are colonising from the continent. It’s especially good for small numbers, but a wide variety, of autumn migrants.

Over the Severn Estuary pine plantations in the Forest of Dean provide the setting for the next stop. It is not so much a location as an area, round Parkend and New Fancy View, that holds the highlights of both hawfinches and displaying goshawks. Nearby RSPB Nagshead completes a trio of spots within a two-kilometre circle.

Further north and inland, where Wales excels, Lake Vrynwy, only 60 miles west of the Black Country, is a breeding ground for many of our passerines. Away from its encircling deciduous woodlands, roads also lead up to the moors and their specialist birds.

Actually in the Midlands and easy off junction 5 of the M5 is the little Worcestershire Wildlife Trust reserve of Upton Warren. Its species list belies its small size as a mixture of salt and fresh water pools attract waders and seabirds as far inland as you can see them.

Even London gets in on the act with its excellent Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) reserve at Barnes Elms. In terms of adding to the species, it really only supplies a couple of invaders – rose-ringed parakeet and Egyptian goose. But its proximity to such a mass of population alone makes it worthy of the Top 10.

The least controversial site is RSPB Titchwell on the North Norfolk coast, where just one day’s visit can yield more than 50 species. Its scrapes and lagoons hold a first-rate selection of waders year round to add to species offshore.

The RSPB reserve at Bempton on the Yorkshire cliffs, provides a maternity ward for Britain’s important seabirds. The spring and summer months really see the colonies come alive although a visit any time of the year is good for the surrounding farmland.

Another WWT reserve at Martin Mere fills the northwest England gap, apart from being a fine day out and not just for waterbirds. The site holds a small colony of tree sparrows and the neighbouring farmland has corn buntings.

Scotland offers unique Caledonian pinewoods, home to capercaillie, crested tit and Scottish crossbill. Few places are better to see them than Abernethy, which is primarily famous for its ospreys. Yet another RSPB site at Loch of Strathbeg, coupled with nearby Rattray Head, promises Scottish coastal watching. Here are Britain’s more northerly pelagic birds and waterfowl, especially in the winter.

10 sites and the possibility of 200 species by my calculations. That’s why I call them Top.

It’s simple: drive all day. And that’s pretty much what I did on a roundabout route from Steyning to Portishead. Heavy traffic past Chichester and Southampton didn’t help and more threatened on the A31 across the New Forest. My northerly escape route came into play.

This includes lunch at the Green Dragon, Brook – expensive but nice. Then the roads pass Longcross, Fritham and Ocknell Plain. Any of these, and all points between, would make a good stop, except early in the afternoon – the birding doldrums. My half hour at Milkham Inclosure yielded two types of heather and a buzzard.

The route leaves the Forest through Broomy Walk at Linwood, which I visited with no great success in 1999. (Perhaps the New Forest is not kind to me?) I ploughed on for Rockford Lake, where black terns had been reported, but, passing in the car, it wasn’t even clear that I was surrounded by the entire Blashford complex.

The rest of the day was a saga of “no room at the inn.” Swanage, Wareham, Dorchester, Crewkerne (no inns at all) and Chard all took me up to seven o’clock. Bristol was then only an hour up the motorway. I ran for home.