{"id":2058477,"date":"2019-05-04T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?guid=13b3932fc22f49e03fdffe821caaf20d"},"modified":"2019-12-23T01:43:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T12:43:39","slug":"best-of-the-400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/best-of-the-400\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of the 400"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I have finally crossed the line and made the personal milestone of 400 birds seen in Britain and this has got me thinking back on a few of them and which ones I enjoyed most.<\/p>\n

Now you’d think it would be easy just by picking the rarest but it’s not that simple. One may have been more challenging to see or ID. Maybe a particular bird took more trips and dips before I finally connected or perhaps one is chosen just because it looks great.<\/p>\n

I might consider the particular twitch to be most memorable or it could be that the bird was the most camera friendly so bear with me while I select my favourites for all of the reasons above.<\/p>\n

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Ortolan Bunting at Abberton my 400th UK tick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Got to be included. After missing the bird on a couple of trips to Scotland I decided to book a cottage in Strontian for a week and eventually struck lucky finding it on a garden pond in April 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Great spotted Cuckoo at Portland is included as a genuine rarity and a nice twitch at a great birding site back in May 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Blyths Pipit was a nice twitch down in Somerset at Blagdon Lakes back in December 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Added just for the rarity value is the Purple Swamphen didn’t exactly show well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Blue Rock Thrush that took a while to get accepted was a bit of an urban twitch which are never my favourites but the bird was a cracker when we eventually found it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Cliff Swallow at Minsmere was a large twitch with a good crowd and the bird was eventually a little crowd pleaser.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Hoopoe….Included because it was a great bird and I dipped nine times before my first.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Siberian Accentor had to be included as a great twitch and I think I’m right in saying this was a first for mainland Britain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Night Heron just too confiding but great news for all holding a camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Rock Thrush is a real contender for my best bird….It was rare, It was only two hours form home in a great scenic location and it was pretty kind to the camera as an all rounder it’s right up there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Another great bird from 2018. The American Bittern that spent some time in Suffolk was a good twitch. A small crowd and a long wait but eventually good views of this rarity allowing it to become one of my 400.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This was my second Snowy Owl with the first being at Felixstowe and viewed through a hole in a fence this second bird was a much nicer twitch although the long walk out to the far end of Snettisham tested us the reward was just fantastic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Rustic Bunting twitch at Wanstead has to be included as the best local bird and when you can pop out at lunch to pick up a lifer it doesn’t get much better. (Thanks again Nick)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Radipole Lake Ross’s Gull was one of my best twitches as it showed really well after a challenging morning to find it, the twitch was good and well behaved and it’s a bird I had always held high on my wish list.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Green Heron in the MP’s garden in Wales was a must go for bird. A great bird with a real rarity value and again a very nice well behaved twitch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This will be right up there with the best of the best. A great bird with extreme rarity value and although a long way to travel who wouldn’t want a day out at Lands End in Cornwall to bag a lifer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This is the one that’s not yet on the list due to it not yet being split but surely it’s just a matter of time. This was at Staines reservoir so again not far from home and showed well feeding along the banks close to the causeway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This Pallid Swift could be my luckiest life tick as I was just in the right place at the right time when it was found feeding along the cliffs at Cromer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Caper just a magnificent bird and a real treat to watch this male as one of my 400<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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American Coot in the Highlands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Harlequin Duck in Aberdeen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Rosy Starling at Wells<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Red backed Shrike at Canvey Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Desert Wheatear<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Burnham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Dunge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Portland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Brunnich’s Guillemot in Portland Harbour way back in 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s obviously a lot more but these are a few of the memorable ticks…..now where’s the next one?<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I have finally crossed the line and made the personal milestone of 400 birds seen in Britain and this has got me thinking back on a few of them and which ones I enjoyed most. Now you’d think it would be easy just by picking the rarest but it’s not that simple. One may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1913,"featured_media":2149261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6984,5],"tags":[2527,693,2451,3100,711,6586,562,3379,1094,5790,3038,388,8448,1149,536],"class_list":["post-2058477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-wildlife","tag-american-bittern","tag-american-coot","tag-blue-rock-thrush","tag-capercaillie","tag-desert-wheatear","tag-great-spotted-cuckoo","tag-green-heron","tag-harlequin-duck","tag-hoopoe","tag-ortolan-bunting","tag-pallid-swift","tag-purple-swamphen","tag-siberian-accentor","tag-snowy-owl","tag-wheatear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2149261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}