Peter Beckenham: 2013: A Year to Remember

Chesil Beach, Dorset, 30/12/13

Ok, I'm a little late with an 'end of year post' and you're no doubt sick of them anyway, but bear with me!

From my own birding perspective, 2013 was a great year and one I'm sure I'll look back on fondly in the future. How can I pick a highlight? I saw a flippin' Roller for starters and a Dodgy Thrush too. Then there was Red-backed Shrike, Penduline Tit, Red-footed Falcon, White-tailed Eagle, Pacific Swift, Pied-billed Grebe, Bluethroat...In short: I saw a lot of fantastic birds (and that was just in Britain).

But it's not always about glamorous migrants or vagrants; I'd wager that the afternoon I found my first Lesser Spotted Woodpecker will linger in my memory as much as any of the above - a small, resident woodland bird that is sadly becoming harder to find. How could I forget the Farne Islands too? And staring, cross-legged on a rock, little more than a metre from a pair of shags tenderly entwining their long necks in each other, reaffirming the bond. Nature just carrying on while we gawped. Wow, The Farnes. Those are moments that matter.

However, it was fitting that a great year should end in style with a trip down to Dorset just before New Year's to see the Brunnich's Guillemot spending the holiday period in Portland Marina. You've probably seen everyone's photos on twitter already but needless to say it was an excellent trip and well worth the early start. Arriving just after 9.30, things initially looked pretty bleak as rain streaked 40mph+ winds determinedly wrestled any standing object but I was soon put on the bird and it went on to show brilliantly for an hour and a half. At one point it popped up no more than fifteen metres from me, the closest I've ever been to the Arctic Circle. It's key characteristics were all easily seen in the field, the pale gape-line and dark 'smudged' cheek, overall at distance it seemed very 'sturdy' and the contrasting black and white plumage was striking. There can't be many occasions when you hurry past a Black-throated Diver to see something else but this was a special bird. The difficult conditions had created something of a birdwatcher's chocolate box in the harbour and at times I didn't know where to look. All three diver species were present, Red-breasted Mergansers were numerous and a Shag popped up too. It was a fantastic few hours and the sun even came out in the end.

Leaving Portland I stopped at Chesil Beach for a bit to take in a feature of so many geography essays I wrote at school. Against the now-blue sky, the sea boiled like violent mushroom soup and gulls hung over the crashing waves. On the shallow side of the shingle ridge, in the lee of the wind, a flock of Brent geese chilled on a pool while a roost of large gulls were joined by a smart Mediterranean Gull.

Having decided against heading another two hours south for the White-billed Diver at Brixham, I charted a course home, first via an incredibly confiding Glossy Ibis on a flooded football pitch in Weymouth and then on to Studland in Poole Harbour for a Surf Scoter. Unlike the Ibis, the scoter was a hard catch, mostly because finding the right spot was tricky. But thankfully I bumped into a couple more birders who were just as confused and between us we worked it out. With the sun dipping quickly, we eventually got on the bird, albeit at some distance. Again, another heap of great birds could be seen before the light faded on the penultimate day of 2013.