The Birds of 2023 // October - December

 

Welcome to the 4th year of my sharing my annual bird photography. Bird watching and photography is a huge passion of mine, my Autistic special interest you could say, and I love to look back on the photos I've taken to appreciate how lucky I am to live somewhere with such diverse and beautiful wildlife. I've become a touch obsessed with taking stock of the species I spot over the years and love to photograph new species I haven't had the privilege to have seen before.

Last year I shared the photos of birds I'd taken the previous year and so this year I share last year's, however, to keep it more up to date I've decided to post 2023's in quarterly posts and also post 2024's images in real time each month.

Below are the birds that I was lucky enough to photograph in October, November and December 2023.

Birds of October
Rook
Wood Pigeon
Moor Hen
Collared Dove
Mallard
Starling
Black Headed Gull
Canada Goose
Grey Heron
Rock Dove
Cormorant
House Sparrow
Herring Gull
Carrion Crow
Razorbill
Turnstone
Magpie

---

Birds of November
Greenfinch
Long Tailed Tit
Blue Tit
Rock Dove
Fieldfare
Starling
Robin
Magpie
Blackbird
Redwing
Carrion Crow
Mute Swan
Black Headed Gull
Redshank
Teal
Chiffchaff
Goldfinch
Siskin
Nuthatch
Bullfinch
Grey Heron
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Coal Tit
Canada Geese

---

Birds of December
House Sparrow
Robin
Starling
Magpie
Rock Dove
Blackbird
Wood Pigeon
Greenfinch
Dunnock
Canada Goose
Bullfinch
Black Headed Gull
Pheasant
Nuthatch
Chaffinch
Siskin
Tufted Duck
Coot
Carrion Crow
Release Dove 
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Moor Hen
Teal
Shelduck
Mute Swan
Mallard
Redshank

---

And that brings us to the end of 2023's birding adventures. Maybe you can tell, but the start of October was our very belated Honeymoon to Disneyland Paris and the bird-watching didn't stop just because we were at Disney! In fact 12 of the species from October were Disney birds, which I think is really special. Alongside the Disney sightings, all of the other magical birds I was lucky enough to encounter in the final quarter of 2023 added another 10 species to my annual total equalling 72 overall. 

Obviously, as I write this I am coming into the final quarter of 2024's birding and as of the end of August, my annual total was already 90 species!! Madness. Each year my love of birds continues to be strange to others but extremely special to me and after looking back through November and December of 2023 I am excited to see what comes my way this Winter...


Below is the full list of 2023 species photographed:

Arctic Tern

Avocet 

Blue Tit

Blackbird

Black Guillemot

Black Headed Gull

Bullfinch

Canada Goose

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch
-

Chiffchaff

Coal Tit

Collared Dove

Common Merganser

Common Tern

Cormorant

Coot 

Curlew

Dunnock

Eider Duck
-

Fieldfare

Fulmar

Gadwall

Gannet

Goldfinch

Golden Eye

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Tit

Greenfinch

Grey Heron
-

Grey Wagtail

Greylag Goose

Herring Gull

House Martin

House Sparrow

Jay

Jackdaw

Kestrel

Lapwing

Linnet
-

Long Tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Moor Hen

Mute Swan 

Nuthatch

Oystercatcher

Pheasant

Pied Wagtail

Razorbill
-

Redshank

Redwing

Reed Bunting

Ringed Plover

Robin

Rock Dove

Rock Pipit

Rook

Sanderling

Sand Martin
-

Shelduck

Siskin

Song Thrush

Sparrowhawk

Starling

Stock Dove

Stonechat

Teal

Treecreeper

Tufted Duck
-

Turnstone

Wood Pigeon

- 72 species