@NottsBirdingHQ

Nine months ago I scribed some rouge juice influenced nonsense about year listing in Notts, I prattled on about how I was on course to break the record and also muttered some bollocks at the end of the post about perhaps doing some UK twitching again. Well I must have had three bottles that night cos I did neither of those things. I finished the year on 179 (adding just 7 birds in the last 4 months). These were Great White Egret, Little Stint, Golden Plover, Pec' Sand', Pink footed Goose & Black Redstart. It really was an appalling autumn. So, at the start of this year I vowed NEVER to county year-list but within a couple of days I'd forgotten all about that vow & was chasing all manner of shite left, right & centre....
It's now the end of May. My county year-list currently sits on a quite horrendous 153. I'm sat in my kitchen in my house in NOTTINGHAMSHIRE (Yes, I moved back to my homeland just over a month ago and god does it feel fucking good - probably more on that later) typing this, my vocabulary is being lubricated by a nice bottle of Tempranillo, the wife & babby are out at a party & Chief Brody is watching the FA Cup final. Now, my regular readers/fans/sycophants/lovers will no doubt be pondering why I've suddenly decided to scribe again after it seemed that I'd retired from this torrid stuff. Well it's primarily the fault of this guy...

...Dave Morton. Budby Flash & Notts stalwart. This morning at Budby Flash (my new patch - although I ain't stepping on no ones toes I hope) he was telling me how he enjoyed reading other birders blogs and particularly enjoyed some of my older posts, when I used to blog regularly. We chatted about folks scribing stuff & it inspired me to dig the laptop out & start banging these buttons again (I've so far missed all the goals in the FA cup cos of this!). He does remind me of a Brummie twitcher whom I used to have a lot of time for - purely in the way he dresses and his beard. Birding skillz wise, Dave is in a different league. Look at this pic of the infamous Brummie and you can see what I mean...

Anyway, I digress, so, 153. Last year I finished April on 158 so you can see I'm way behind. The current leader of the pack this year is on 168, 2nd position is on 165, 3rd is 160 & then me. I was in 1st or 2nd position throughout the year until mid April when I foolishly jetted off to Cyprus for 11 nights and thus killed all hopes of topping the table. Now Cyprus was pretty special, I saw some pretty snazzy birds, drank lots of booze, ate some pretty tasty grub (and some not so tasty) & got a decent tan.Predictably tho', the shadow of Notts Life Listing enveloped me a few days into my holiday when I was bombarded by loads of smug, childish, gloating Notts bastards informing me that a Night Heron was showing its tits at Attenborough. I knew it would happen though. Last September I went to Bulgaria & having not had a county tick for 9 months, on my first full day in the Balkans, the first twitchable Bonxie for 20+ years decided to loaf about at Hoveringham. 

I was looking at this when I started getting texts about the Attenborough bird - Kick in the balls!

Putting Cyprus (& that heron) aside, it's been a rather horrific spring for me. Both Monty's & Red-necked Phal have occurred in the county but untwitchable. I dipped the Ring-billed Gull despite putting in a few hours in torrential rain, only for it to reappear once I was at home. I've now not added a bird to my Notts list since December 2013. Somethings got to give soon. Being based now almost centrally in the county I'm in a perfect base to hit all corners of Notts, my gear is always primed ready to be launched into the motor, I now only work three days a week thus giving me 4/7 days free and emergency fuel funds are stashed but I still ponder where my next tick will come from....

Anyway, this year-list. I'm still missing Common Sand, Gropper, Whimbrel, Sanderling, Nightjar, Spotted Fly', Greenshank, Whinchat, Black Tern, Kittiwake, HB, Little Gull & Crossbill. I did consider (& almost did) jacking it in but in recent weeks I've slowly started climbing back up the rungs. I very much doubt an assault on the lead is possible but as I learnt at the beginning of the year, I'll Never Say Never Again... 

Steve Dunn will return....