Sound 'ON'

A couple of local birders are making a sterling effort to compile a 2021 local bird report for the Bridport area. This is a lovely idea and it's galvanised me into finishing off my 2021 nocmig data entry so that it can be included. This has involved a dreaded spreadsheet, but yesterday I finally got it done. There is an entry for each night, but here is a summary of the monthly totals...

I had to insert it as a screenshot, so not too sure how legible it will be when embedded in the blog post, but that's the best I can do right now. I only missed one night in March, none in April, four in May and June, three in July, one in August and six in September. October was a bit rubbish, and I recorded only 13 nights. I managed the first five nights in November, and that was it for 2021. Therefore, if my sums are correct, the table shows the results of 213 nights nocmig.

There are some very nice highlights, including Stone-curlew and Ring Ouzel, but my personal favourite thing about nocmig is all the wader action I get here. Being three miles from the sea and a lot further from the nearest pukka wader habbo (there is so little around here) every single wader is a small 'wow' moment.

Needless to say, I'm hooked, and plan to do it all again this year. Earlier this evening I deployed the nocmig kit for its first outing of 2022, to the sound of the local church bells loudly wrecking the start of the night's recording! I recently applied for and was granted a Trektellen login, so I'll be trying that platform from now on. Perhaps nocmig spreadsheets are a thing of the past? I hope so!

Yes, I am manager of the official Bradpole nocmig site...

There is a slight problem though. After requesting my Trektellen login, and registering my site as 'Bradpole' I made the surprising discovery that I do not after all live in the civil parish of Bradpole. Rather, I live in what is actually a sneaky part of the parish of Bridport which extends into Bradpole CP like an invasive tongue. Although it was a crushing disappointment to learn that I no longer live in a cosy Dorset village, but a full-blown market town, hopefully Trektellen isn't worried about this trivial factoid.