Wildlife

James Lowen

But what about Norfolk? Here it gets interesting. I have never lived in the county. I have never 'Norfolk-listed', never actively sought to see species in the county for the sake of adding them to my local list. But I have birded there - for days and holiday weeks - on and off since 1986. And much of that birding has included twitching national rarities, or scouring the coast during migration periods. These must be the reasons for starting my Norfolk life with 295 species already under my county belt, just five fewer than years of hard work in Yorkshire. Nothing compared to the top country listers who are within a bird or two of an amazing 400. But not bad. And I've already added one since arrival last month: White-rumped Sandpiper at Hickling. Will I get to 300 this autumn? I don't know but- oddly - for the first time since my Yorkshire youth, I sense that I actually care. The ship is listing.

As for Kent, the school report reads "should have done better". Again, Kent-listing was not really for me. I cannot remember ever actually going for a "Kent tick". 269 species is nothing special, even if it does include Britain's first recently twitchable Dusky Thrush. Oh well.

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7 Sep 2014 The ship is listing

In July, I had an idle hour between packing up our London house. I found myself wondering how many species of bird I had seen in Greater London during the 12 or so years I lived there. And what about Kent, the county in which I most frequently birded? And how did that compare to the county of my youth - Yorkshire - during the years when I actually cared about my list. And, with an eye on the future, how did this compare to the number of species I had already seen in our future home county, Norfolk? I passed the hour by finding out.

The Yorkshire list was easy. This was (and probably remains) the list of birds I cared most about. As a juvenile Tyke, I actively Yorkshire-listed. I birded there until I went to university, aged 18, and spent a few months there in holidays etc until aged 23. When I migrated definitively southwards, I did so with 299 species to my name. Not a bad haul at the time - and more even than longstanding Yorkshire birders such as Birding Dad Jono Leadley. Courtesy of the very same kind man, I saw my 300th Yorkshire species in October last year: a Western Bonelli's Warbler at Flamborough. Here is a truly terrible shot to prove it.

And so to Greater London. Despite living there more than a decade, I never got into London listing: to be honest, the traffic put me off. Why struggle two hours on public transport to see a Red-throated Diver? So I never did. This explains some real anomalies on my London list. I have never seen any diver species in London. Yet I have seen all six grebes - and that includes Pied-billed (in Tooting).

Herein lies another oddity. I do have the odd other extreme rarity on my London list: the type that might inspire a modicum of envy in some well-known younger London-listers. Pine Bunting is a prime example (the Dagenham Chase male in 1992) and an octet of Cattle Egrets (Rickmansworth, the same year) perhaps another. And I do have some genuine megas, mostly at Rainham Marshes: Slaty-backed Gull (if it was one), White-tailed and Sociable Lapwings, Baillon's Crake, and Brown Shrike. Ultimately, then, the list is absolutely quality over quantity. If there was a rare to see, I tried to see it. The slideshow provides some evidence of that. However, if I 'needed' it for London, but it was otherwise common, I didn't bother. The outcome: 231 species.