500! - 7.12.25

Way back in July 1982 my mum bought a house that she still lives in to this day. The garden is only about 30ft long and about 15ft wide so doesn't exactly look like a magnet for wildlife but at one point we were visited by a very lost Badger that took delight in smashing its way through the neighbourhood fences to get in the various gardens!

If our garden wasn’t very big the old man next doors garden was strangely enormous compared to all the others in the road. The old man was a compulsive hoarder with numerous cookers, bikes and washing machines in the garden. No gardening had been done in many years and so it was full of brambles and self set trees creating an oasis in the middle of houses. With this it brought in a fair few birds most of which we didn’t know what they were. So some cheap binoculars and a bird book were purchased and over the following years numerous species were identified including Redpoll and Siskin and so my love of birds began. 

Fast forward to the early 2000’s and with local trips and the occasional coach trip I’d reached about 240 species. Along with the late Bob Harris I started twitching further afield for new species gradually hitting 300 with a Bluethroat on St.Agnes, 350 a Pine Bunting in Worcs, 400 a Brown Shrike at Staines, 450 a Red-eyed Vireo on St.Mary’s and then 475 a Black-browed Albatross in July 2021. By now it was getting harder to add new birds but I set myself a target of hitting 500 species before my 50th birthday which was this August. 

2 more were added in 2021, 6 in 2022 and 2023 certainly helped with an amazing 11 ticks. 3 further species were added in 2024 but then we all lost 2 species of Redpoll so the Booted Eagle in February should’ve been my 500th species but wasn’t. August came and went being stuck on 499 so I now hoped I’d reach my target before the end of the year. 

Lesser Crested Tern

As luck would have it an orange billed tern species was seen briefly in Devon on the 1st and a couple of days later it pitched upon the Exe Estuary at Dawlish Warren. Thankfully despite the weather it was still around on Saturday so Brendon Fagan offered me a lift down on the Sunday. After a fruitless search from Cockwood steps it was then found 15 minutes further up the estuary at Turf. Off we went and after making our own parking space in the car park and a brisk walk along the canal we arrived at the Turf hotel and there on a pontoon with Oystercatchers was my first ever LESSER CRESTED TERN and with it my 500th species in the UK with with 24 days to spare before the end of the year. 

After enjoying this moment despite the rain we headed to Dawlish Warren to try and get Cirl Bunting on the year list but sadly the weather wasn’t very conducive.

The only down side is soon a new listing authority will take over and with it I’ll be losing Green-winged Teal, Hooded Crow and Stejneger’s Stonechat after their lumping. Oh well I guess I’ve got getting to 500 species to look forward to again! 

Finally I’d just like to thank all those who have driven me or joined me on my adventures and raise a glass to those who are sadly no longer with us.