Wild at Hull: Year firsts of Hull 100 birds

Tuesday, 7 January 2025

Year firsts of Hull 100 birds

I manage to do my first walks of the year in Hull today. Since the covid lockdowns, I have set myself the challenge to see 100 bird species in Hull, and I have managed each of them. In 2021 I hit 208. Last year, the challenge proved very exciting, as I only hit 100 on the 27th December, when I spotted the returning Mediterranean Gull atop Princes Quay on the way to a panto with my family. What prompted me to blog about it this year is the notion, repeated again and again, that it must be living in cities what makes people alienated from nature. I read this recently in Lee Schofield book, Wild Fell. A great read by the way. A few pages after the lack of nature in city mention, he reports on a 4+ hour walk on the uplands of Haweswater, and how his bird list was 6 species! On the same week in a woodland in the area, he clocks 34 species. There is no big surprise that the intensively grazed uplands have been left practically bare of wildlife, but cities are not to blame. Indeed, on my way to work across Hull city, I regularly list 30 species in less than an hour. Listing 40 species plus is not too unusual in a trip to East Park. There is a lot of wildlife in towns and cities only if we care to look. Habitat are diverse and form mosaics where water meets land and large mature trees in parkland, drains and ditches and rough grassy fields. This year's Hull 100 birds series will celebrate the unacknowledged riches of city birds, adding a blog post to Wild at Hull each time I see a new species on my walks.

The first day

On the 7th of January I managed a morning walk to Pearson Park and an afternoon walk to the General Cemetery. Added 22 species at Pearson Park, the best, this Herring Gull from a Scottish ringing scheme, ringed last year as a 3 cy, and sexed by size as a male. Adding Pied Wagtail on the pools formed on the grass was also nice.