Friday, December 31, 2010

Yearlists 2009 and 2010

My first ever birdwatching trip was in November 2009. I took place on my friend's excursion for students. We visited Lake Neusiedler See and we were looking for Brent Geese. There were none, but it gave me first glimpse in Collins Bird Guide. I made my first observation using spotting scope. I remember that I told to my friend to write me down a list of birds from that day. It included these birds:

Little Grebe
Pygmy Cormorant
Bittern
Mallard
Teal
Northern Shoveler
Pintail
Greylag Goose
White-fronted Goose
Shelduck
Common Buzzard
Marsh Harrier
Common Pheasant
Common Crane
Coot
Curlew
unknown wader of Calidris sp.
Caspian Gull
Robin
Stock Dove
Jackdaw

To be honest I don't recall some of them but I remember that Curlew fascinated me the most. This is all from that year.

In 2010 I began taking walks and I started to study all about birds. I used every opportunity to accompany my expert friends. May be I was told to write some notes and lists but I didn't. In the end of the year I started to contribute my observations on specialized Slovak website www.birding.sk In November 2010 I spotted my only one Red-necked Grebe and this is the only bird I miss in later yearlists. 

From 2011 I began to take notes regularly and started to write down my first ever lifelist.