New Year's Resolutions

No! I don't need to make any. Though I have kindly distributed a list of suggested resolutions to my family and friends.

Actually I've resolved to be less tolerant and open minded, and to drip more sarcasm. So look out.

Also, on the birding front, I have resolved to go for a modest 140 year list in the strict boundaries of my Newtonhill patch, which is here.... Although that sounds pitifully easy, when I think about it there's only about 90-100 that are reasonably guaranteed, even with a modicum of persistence. So I'll have to dig the rest out, and one had better be a BB rarity. If I'm desperate I'm going to annex Cove.

I'm currently on about 30! So well on target :-$
5 Purple Sandpipers were with 14 Ruddy Turnstones on the rocks amid the gull roost this afternoon. 5 Carrion Crows noisily mobbing a Common Buzzard along the clifftops, and my first dilemma of the year - a couple of Hooded x Carrion Crow 'x-generation' hybrids in the cow field north of the Elsick Burn. Can I count them as both species? We do get some good hybrid combinations here - one brood in particular of 4 birds from a hybrid x hybrid cross had one 'dark' hoodie-lookalike, one 'speckled' hoodie lookalike, one normal 'Carrion' lookalike and one runty black one that could hardly fly.

Scanning 6 square miles of North Sea was rewarded with 1 Guillemot on the water.

Thanks for your messages of support regarding uptake of IOC names. Apparently I don't need to cos you all hate me already.