Manchester Birder's January 2026 Summary

Well that was an unexpectedly busy and brilliant month!  I didn't think I'd be travelling at all for birds in the month, and set out with a plan to stick to Lancashire and Manchester with perhaps an exotic day out in Cheshire for relief.  In reality I had days in Cumbria, north Wales, Hampshire and Norfolk along with a foray into Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire.  I love the refreshing beginning of the year, the way that a new year makes us all reappraise the birds we see, the year list chat and the surprises of winter.  

Perhaps it's the nature of birding in the North West that the year doesn't necessarily fit the pattern of the UK birding big picture that makes me enjoy winter birding so much.  Here, winter is the best season for birding.  The wildfowl is here, and that's something to celebrate in the big landscapes of the Mosses and the coastal salt marsh.  Spring is good too, with the eventual return of breeding migrants and perhaps something special, but then summer is often as quiet as it gets, and autumn is all about birds leaving the area rather than birds arriving.  Growing up and birding around the restriction of short winter daylight hours has left some structure in my mind that makes winter birding feel comfortable.  I love spring, and the long days of summer, and the excitement of rarities and vagrants in autumn storms; but winter birding is a pair of shoes broken in just right.  Nothing fits quite the same.

It's been a good year for geese, with the influx of Bean Geese of each type and huge numbers of Russian White-fronts giving extra motivation for searching through carrier flocks and receiving groups of "feral" geese, and there is also a feeling that certain American wildfowl are becoming expected winter species.  The month contained Lesser Scaup, American Wigeon, Surf Scoter, Ring-necked Duck and, still in the rare category for me, Bufflehead, Snow Goose and Ross's Goose.

With no Big Year pressure, it's been fun to spend time trying to get photographs of more species to help with my long-term project to have every species I could reasonably expect to see in the UK photographed; female, male, juvenile and seasonal plumages.  I was surprised at myself enjoying slow days in the cold waiting for Dipper on a Manchester river and displaying Goldeneye on a lonely reservoir in the hills - my usual modus of long days in the field and long distances walked was swapped for excellent views of reasonably common, if specialised, local birds.  Exploring habitat in places that are fairly local, perhaps the next 5km out in a ring from my 10km circle, has been interesting and gave me some fresh excitement that maybe my local patch doesn't - I love my patch, but becoming overloaded on it can make me feel jaded and the best way to balance that out is to explore the new.

With that said my year list is significantly bigger than this time last year.  This is a natural by-product of a widening circle of birding friends - January last year was almost entirely solo (by choice, following a period of significant struggle), which meant my motivation to be outside was sometimes low.  This year I've been lucky enough to be invited out on other people's trips, and taking those opportunities (and loving them) has led to a good year list.  It's been more encouraging than I can say to meet people who read this blog and who tell me they enjoy reading it, and being able to share birds and experiences of wildlife with them has been one of the most rewarding aspects of both birding and writing.  

Highlights of the month of Killdeer, Black-winged Kite, Bufflehead, Shorelark, Lesser Yellowlegs, White-tailed Eagle, Taiga Bean, Tundra Bean, Ross's, and White-fronted Geese, Waxwing and many more, but I think my favourite bird of the month was the Eastern Black Redstart.  In October 2025 I saw more Black Redstarts in one month than I had in my entire life cumulatively before, but this one in Sheringham was an absolute joy.  February will be all about woodland birds for me, with a bit of impetus to search the wider local area for rumoured Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Goshawk, and travelling a little further afield for Woodlark and Green Woodpecker (strangely scarce in the north west), and a potential visit to Scotland towards the end of the month to renew my love affair with Caledonian forests, mountain landscapes and whisky.