Erm, welcome back.....

Almost exactly 13 years ago, for reasons that escape me, I began this blog.

I only ever made two posts. One, some introductory comments, I've retained, by way of providing some sort of context, although given the time that has elapsed, perhaps I need to reintroduce myself!

The other I have deleted for 'diplomatic' reasons; my life has moved on in SO many ways since then (which is another reason to reintroduce myself!).

Anyway, all these years later I intend blogging again, as I've entirely 're-purposed' the original blog.

Having introduced me as a birder and Burnley FC follower, the very first blog included a statement thus, "Maybe, (stay with me!), just maybe, it will be a happy tale of the achievement of 500 birds seen by yours truly in the UK over the next few years," (and also admitted I am a mere low-lister..... ).

Anyway, suffice to say, I finally achieved my ambition of seeing 500 bird species in the UK with the Northern Mockingbird on the 7th May 2021, although, as ever, the actual total involved is subject to constant revision due to taxonomic changes, etc., but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So what is this 're-purposed' I mention?

Well, ever since the addition of the c.260th species to my UK list (the Little Bustard in the Avon Valley outside Christchurch in Dorset in very early January 1988) I have written up the whole twitch, involving a detailed description of the whole scenario surrounding it, as well as a description of the bird involved. In addition, I have added any photographs I may have taken or obtained (formerly purchased as prints from those rare bird photographers that sold their photos of rarities, and latterly located on the interweb - and appropriately credited of course 😎). I have also included a sketch, often based on scribblings I made at the time.

I had handwritten versions of the same for the first few years, before these evolved to word-processed documents. Each was in a plastic sleeve in two large ring binders.

It was always very much a work in progress; an endless amount of drawings were always on the 'to do' list, for example.

Also, having seen the Masked Shrike in the East Neuk of Fife at the end of October in 2004 with my (at the time) very young daughters, the 'new species account' I prepared soon afterwards was lost when my PC crashed. Having poured my soul into the writing of the same, I was so completely demoralised by this unrecoverable loss that I stopped writing up such accounts altogether for a lot of years, which was partly also as a result of life getting very complicated at this time.

However, there was always at least something recorded in my notebooks, and in the momentous year that was 2016, I prepared a half decent sketch drawing of each of my ticks in the desk diary type notebooks I was using by then, and, as a result, also I started doing the proper write ups again.

Move on a few years to 2019, the (first) year of COVID-19 and serious lockdown, I set myself the challenge of word-processing all of the 'back catalogue' of accounts. This involved typing up all of the original hand-written ones, and converting all of the subsequent word-processed ones into a standardised format which was used for all, AND, by whatever means necessary, (mainly involving using whatever notes I had and doing lots of internet and other research) creating accounts for all of those ticks for which there wasn't one following the Masked Shrike fiasco until whatever it was for which there was one prepared all those years later. 

As such, I now have some 250 separate word-processed accounts, and I'm in the process of slowly illustrating each of these with sketches and photographic images.

One of the prime reasons for having these new species accounts was always so that I can reminisce in my dotage; say to my daughters, "Read me 471, I think you'll find it is Brunnich's Guillemot", and then just drift off into a haze of fond memories.

However, during the process of preparing the write ups, I have sometimes sent drafts to a small number of friends for their feedback.

As, invariably, this has been supportive and positive, I am now proposing to gradually upload some(?) / all(?) such new species accounts to this blog for others to enjoy.

I hope in some sort of way they capture something of what twitching was in the post-Nancy's era, when the rare bird alert services took twitching to, arguably, a newer, wider audience, but before it become an 'easy' 'check what's available, jump in my car, follow the sat-nav directions, see the bird' exercise. Also, I have the feeling that twitching is going to become increasingly outmoded by environmental (and financial!) concerns, so again, I hope the accounts capture what twitching was like (for me at least) before these strictures hit home.

Lastly, the next post will be the very first such 'new species account' to be uploaded. It relates to the Cemlyn Lagoons Elegant Tern I saw just over a year ago. This was my 501st species and as such could be considered to be an appropriate one to start with, but more to the point, it already comprises a totally complete write up, complete with a (in this instance very poor) sketch, and a range of images including my rubbish 'context' one and some stunners from my mate Paul Pugh.
Posting the first such write up provides a lot of added motivation to get on and complete as many others as possible!

Let me know what you think; I can always abandon the idea as necessary, but it feels good to have got to this stage.