The Standlake Birder

While 2020 was a terrible year in so many awful ways, it was, somewhat perversely, a truly memorable birding year with many UK firsts, blockers unblocked and large autumn influxes of generally rare birds. Although a year list of 219 is very modest by my previous standards in did include an incredible 25 new UK lifers. So, without further ado, here is my birding year in review   Dip of the year   As usual this is the most keenly fought award with many worthy contenders but there is one dip that really is head and shoulders above the rest. The Rufous Bush Chat is a legendary blocker in British birding circles. In this regard blocker means a bird that has not been seen in the UK for many years and hence is regarded as a blocker on many birders UK list. The last record of any kind was in Jersey in 1998 and the last really twitchable bird was 57 years ago in Lincolnshire. So to say that considerable excitement was generated in twitching circles when one was found in Norfolk in October would

  Award Winning (😂😂😂😂) Pic Of Rustic Bunting I have made three birding trips out in the last week or so. They could all be characterised as being very birdy and enjoyable but a combination of winter gloom, user incompetence and distance made them somewhat non-photogenic, but, as I say, I enjoyed them very much and that’s the main thing!   I’ve made two post lockdown trips down to Thursley Common in Surrey in search of two rare Buntings.    Firstly, a Little Bunting which the Collin’s bible rates as a one star rarity equating to an annual vagrant in some numbers. It is a bird that I have only seen once before in the UK. The Little Bunting, as the name suggests, is appreciably smaller than our comparatively common resident Reed Bunting from which it is further differentiated by having a prominent pale eye ring, two buff white wing bars and more chestnutty coloured cheeks. It breeds across the taiga of the far north-east of Europe to the Russian Far East.  It is migratory, wintering i