Well, that was a year that was…

Female ring-necked duck, Alexandra Park, Manchester

It's a rum sort of year where by Easter I've seen more ring-necked ducks than wigeon. Having the first quarter of the year under lockdown frustrated the usual Winter birdwatching but made sure the sites within walking distance got a hammering. 

Maps: sites recorded in Greater Manchester in 2021

Greater Manchester's been given a good going over, too: there aren't many kilometre squares I didn't visit this year. I found a lot of new birdwatching walks, revisited a few I've neglected for years, and I've been getting out of the house for a walk at least four times a week. There are places I regret not being able to visit in the circumstances (after watching the mass irresponsibility immediately after "freedom day" I was wary of making any plans) but I still managed to get a few longer distance days out.

Can you spot when Lockdown ended?

The year list ends on 198, a figure I would have laughed at in April. There are notable gaps in the list: no skuas or phalaropes (just the one owl!), no fulmar, bittern, long-tailed duck, bean goose, Caspian gull, cuckoo, pied flycatcher or water pipit. I dipped on wryneck, smew and green-winged teal, and all in all the number of records of seabirds and waders is thinner than I'd like. On the other hand, I've been falling over spoonbills, stonechats and ravens and this is the year I didn't just see an osprey from a train but a few weeks later I found where it was nesting, also from the train. So all in all it's been a very peculiar year.

I could have had one mad dash out today but why stress myself out so? It was a nice day for chilling out, refilling the feeders in the back garden and listening to the coal tit in the blackcurrant bush next to me as it waited for me to finish. So I end the year with my life list at 364, the year list at 198, my British list at 281 and my Greater Manchester list at 168. 

Lifers

I bumped into six new species this year, pretty good going given the circumstances.

• The lesser white-front at Marshside was a fluke and I'm still kicking myself for not spotting it out in the field.
   

  

  Barnacle goose, lesser white-fronted goose and pink-footed geese

  
  
• The Richardson's cackling goose at Lowercroft Reservoir was good to see, especially as it was very obliging about posing next to Canada geese so I could compare and contrast.
   

  

  Cackling goose (left) and Canada goose

  
  
• The elegant tern at Hightown was bloody hard work, worth it for a bird I would never have predicted at the start of the year.
   

  

  Sandwich terns and elegant tern

  
  
• The Savi's warbler at Heslington was a bugger to see but very obliging in song.
   
• The dusky warbler at Ainsdale was, frankly, a punt. I was in the area so decided to have a speculative nosy round and against all my expectations I actually found it.
   
• The red-backed shrike at Meols was a twitch, and turned out to be a distant lovely.
   

  

  Red-backed shrike

Actually, I wouldn't have predicted adding any of these to my life list. Finally seeing some male ring ouzels was a Spring highlight.

For a bit of fun I'll have a go at predicting next year's lifers (secure in the knowledge I'll be dead wrong):

• Lapland bunting
• Wryneck
• Little auk
• Nightjar
• Great reed warbler

Whatever 2021's been like one way or another, I hope we all have a better 2022.