2012...The Year That Was

Ah 2012...the year of the Olympics, the Leveson Enquiry and the final series of The Thick of It, but it was more than that really. I've been busy this year with my GCSEs, sitting exams in January and the June to get some rather pleasing results in August. I saw The Stone Roses live. And Noel Gallagher. I was *that* close to getting a drumstick at The Enemy when they played the academy. And I spent a cumulative total of around 5 days taking photos. So t'wasn't too bad really.

So I thought, what with this being the eve of 2013 and the Fiscal Cliff (scary eh?) I better get on with it and write it down, like an egalitarian online version of Samuel Peeps. Minus the massive wig, obviously. So without further ado, get yourself an eggnog (or a glass of water. Or nothing. I'm not forcing you.) and let me regale with tales of bygone days spent out in the field...

I'm going with one photo per month, so for January I go back to my old house. The wind whistles and moans, the trees gnarled (well one of them was a bit gnarled) and the rain lashes the windows. I'm at the kitchen window, with GCSE Biology on my lap and a mug of tea in my hand, but outside there is something altogether more interesting (seriously!). A goldfinch sits on a piece of string, the only redeeming feature of the day. Through an act of contortion through an open window I get shots off, and that's my day sorted. Revision is so underrated...

February cleared everything up, out in the field I was with a brew in one hand and my glass in the other. Sat in a bush in Conwy, patiently waiting for a certain owl to show. No gloves too in sub-zero temperatures, I hasten to add. Thank God that Shortie showed was all I could say, although it took me several days to say it due to my development of what a hypochondriac like myself would called pneumonia...

...March came in like a Lion and left still very much like a Lion, if by Lion you mean a near-constant thunderstorm inter spliced with the odd clear patch and some frogs procreating in the back garden. I think my definition of a Lion is a bit off. Ah well, it was fun whilst the spawning lasted...!

...April came just 31 days after March, and with it a trip to meet world-famous wildlife photographer Andy Hay. It was a humbling but ultimately interesting experience meeting someone so much better than myself, but a good time was had by all and I finally got that Yellowhammer shot i've always wanted...!

...May came and along with it a crappy speech from the Headmaster followed by being booted out of school for study leave. Roll on I said, and I was right to be so happy with happenings for I had some belting macro shots from the garden. But the unequivocal highlight of May was a belting experience with the Redstarts of Derbyshire...

But, just like that, June was upon us and I found myself in a new house and my exams over! So off I pottered to Shetland, my year's highlight by an absolute country mile. Some belting shots and species to boot, with great weather and food...

...but as June melted into July all was not lost for I was off to the Pyrenees for a week of, as I said afterwards, birds, bikes and norovirus. Aside the last one that was a belter of a trip, with some good shots and new birds...including this rather fetching Rock Sparrow...

The next month was August and with this change came the hatching of the pupae found in my stomach into beautiful butterflies. Yup, exam season was on. Still, sitting on a campsite with my mates, 2 random people from Grimsby and an unconscious brummy made me forget this somewhat, as did a family holiday to Andalucia, where this Scarce Swallowtail was a surefire favourite...

But alas the four months of holiday were gone, to be replaced with the murk of September. This saw me once more on Hilbre camera in hand and amongst my favourite birds, the Dunlin...

More fun was to occur in October with a trip up north of the border to Inverness, and another stint on Hilbre with this memorable Redshank shot the best of the day...

....then back to the exams again, like hitting a brick wall but with less physical pain and more subtle references to how university application is inextricably linked to THIS VERY EXAM! So no 'true' trips out, just a shedload of Waxwings over Manchester and the North-West, what beauties...!

...so here we are again. A year of birds, butterflies and (for the first time) beer! Still quite excited about that last one. Still, we stand on the brink of a new year, but to be honest its going to be pretty much the same as the last so don't get too excited. Have a good'n and see you all on the other side. :)

'Kid in a Sweetshop'- Birding the Pyrenees (Part I- Jaca Ass)

Well let me really rub it in, after Shetland I stayed home for a week watching Father Ted and occasionally editing some photos when I felt like it. However, after a week of this I set off once more on my jollies, this time south to the far flung (and slightly exotic) destination of Portsmouth. From here I boarded the Cap Finestre, the ferry bound for Bilbao in northern Spain. It was with the intention of watching the Tour de France we set out that day from Portsmouth, but with a couple of days before and after we had some time to burn and in such a wonderful location the prospect of doing some light birding suited me down to the ground. We've visited the Pyrenees as a family before so knew some reasonable sites and had high hopes that, going in July rather than August, the birding'd be even better than last time. We broke the trip down into going to a certain number of places, covered in this post are:

- Argomaniz
- Jaca
- Riglos/Aguero

...but going somewhere by boat brings with it opportunities, such as those to watch the Common Dolphin in the bow-wave...!

... and 24hrs after leaving Portsmouth we docked in Bilbao, 5pm local time. We had designs to get to Argomaniz near Pamplona before nightfall for some kip before pressing onto the mountains. After some tricky navigation out of Bilbao we settled down for the night, adding Serin, Cirl Bunting, Goldfinch, Linnet and Melodious Warbler to the mix. However, I concentrated mainly on the Black Redstarts, a Pyrenean speciality and a bird not to be missed in its stunning full plumage. This is the male...

...The Serin waited for the next morning, but didn't resist for long as it sat at pretty much head height on a wall by the road...

...but Argomaniz was but a staging post in our stratospheric journey to one of my favourite places on earth, up there with Shetland, Manchester and Anfield. We arrived in Jaca, a smallish town in a valley on the Spanish side of the range. Our afternoon's targets were a Lesser Spot of Lunch and Rock Sparrow. With the first negotiated with little trouble, we set off to pursue these elusive but very attractive sparrows. They live on Jaca Citadel, and eventually we found them. As expected they proved elusive so we left them to have some tea, returning the next morning. On a tour (or 'Vuelta') of the town we found Bee-eater (a lifer!) and this egg-laying Small Skipper...

...VERY co-operative insect, my best shots of one to date. However, with the shadows lengthening and my eyelids dropping into my peripheral vision I called it a day. Or a Dia, I guess.

An early start and as the sun rose we were in position in the crisp morning air near the citadel. Having watched their activities yesterday I had a battle-plan: wait for them to leave their nests, fly across the moat then hit em at close range over the wall. This worked. Broadly speaking...!

...and that yellow throat that marks them out...

...so not a bad start. We then headed towards the twin-towns of Aguero (not Sergio, thank God!) and Riglos, home of the 'Mallos' (or fingers to the likes of you or I). En-route we stopped for lunch, and I got my first ever acceptable Black Kite shots as it came low through the valley...

...whilst we ate the Crag Martins whirred overhead, I tried to capture a feed as the adults attended to some young in a tunnel...

...if nothing else that 50D can't half deal with noise! That was at ISO 1600 for those interested. As we came in towards Riglos we couldn't help but admire the Mallos, what a structure...!

...in the shrubs at the bottom I found my first lifer of the trip, a Sub-Alpine Warbler. Not a great shot, but crappy light and I was still excited having seen it...!

...and found a lovely Black Redstart nest...

...but aside some very interesting vulture nests, we found little at the towns of the Mallos. Still, that was not a day to be sniffed at and as we meandered back through the scorching Spanish countryside we reflected that, on the whole, it wasn't such a bad life.