Thursday 30 August 2012

fisher of kings

whoop! whilst watching (count 'em) two green sands on the lakeshore this pm, a kingfisher flew over the top of them and off into the reeds - fantastic! Not quite annual and need to be jammy for em - all good!

Wednesday 29 August 2012

fea's fun

feck! that makes four now! wow! wasn't my find but was really glad i hadn't bailed out 3 minutes earlier when I said I was going home! really enjoyed the swearing afterwards as it scooted past! Fantastic!

Monday 27 August 2012

Foxed

Putting in the hours, but no movement in Boghall. The best we could manage was a comedy fox trotting across a grassy field with a pheasant leg in its gob. Not a wryneck, and does not get us closer to Seppy, but it does mean there is one less pheasant out there.

Da Procs with Nocs

Sunday 26 August 2012

Par

Momentous news from this humble patch - par has been reached, courtesy of a star Wryneck. In London, next to the bloody Olympics, a bloody Wryneck. And not just a Wryneck, but my second Wryneck in three years. Did I mention Wryneck enough yet? Slight panic yesterday when it was found, as I was in Cornwall drowing in big Shears, but I pulled myself together and reasoned that the patch is of such quality that only a really really stupid Wryneck would consider moving off overnight. Smart bird, it stayed, and even though I am floating around on almost no sleep, was about the first bird I saw this morning when back on the patch. So, that's 100%, and anything else from here on in is a bonus.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

It's been a while.....

...and not for lack of trying but finally the summer drought lifted this evening with two Green Sands heading south - first here for quite some years. A juv Little Gull was not a year tick but was more obliging for the camera.

So now 107 species (=84.92%). Well off the pace but actually just twp species behind this time last year.

Statto

quarterly score declaration

Time for my quarterly score declaration...

119 species/92.6%

Nothing earth shattering of course, cos you'd have heard about it.

I'm a little intrigued about what counts as 'on patch' though. I know we've been over this before, so if someone could refresh my memory that would be grand.

If I can see my patch and the humpback whale at the same time, can I count it (despite the fact that it isnt a bird)? It was only a few hundred metres offshore, as was I (on a boat, by the way...)

I reckon it is marginally better than wryneck. I've never seen a wryneck breaching, mind you...

leapfrogging da prockies

a fine flyover green sandpiper last nite brings me upwards of the 95% barrier - never been so high so early in da year! Scorchio!

Sunday 19 August 2012

Migs in the (wrong) morning

Well there were migs in the morning but alas I was in London when the ol' bill was piling in the birds and by the time I got back from my travels they'd pretty much all bogged off.  The only passerine remaining was a garden warbler, a bit disappointing really.  However, a hobby buzzing around was only my second for the patch and a gadwall was not only my first for the year but best of all, a garden tick.   Other bits and pieces included a long over due osprey (again over the garden) and a common tern and Arctic skua on a brief sea watch.  So, half a dozen or so patch birds over the weekend bring the tally up to 134 and 86.45%.

Happy days

Bushveld

Monday 13 August 2012

Migs in the morning

But not yet...

It's been a while since my last posting as there's not been much to be said during the summer doldrums. However, a few greenshank and a fly by ruff were recent additions putting me on 126 for the year and 81.29%.

Leaving me somewhere in the middle of the table and a long way off the medal positions...  Still can always hope for a nice fall tomorrow, here's hoping.


Bushveld


me me me

Two (count 'em!) pied flys plus a previously omitted arctic tern brings up 131 for the year - just 11 species short of a new personal best on patch in a year! Puts me up into 3rd spot, and just one species shy of leap-frogging the proccies with de nockies! All to play for!

Thursday 9 August 2012

blackwits

A quick sconce at the lakeside curlew flock has just produced 2 black-tailed godwits! Huzzah! And with south-easterlies blowing today for the 1st time this autumn, all is good hereabouts!

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Booya! Autumn!

Autumn started yesterday with the first southbound Wheatear, and was followed up this morning with a great little fall. Two Garden Warblers (absent from the patch up until now), two Spotted Flycatchers and a Sedge Warbler were the ones to beat. I caught up with one of each of the first two, but of the third there was no sign. A neat double nonetheless and takes me, Mr D Nimmo, to 97.20% in the great Patchlist Challenge.

Monday 6 August 2012

Another patch bogie falls!

Adult long-tailed skua past Galley fri nite! Patch tick no less! Hoo hoo! Delighted so I was! Still behind de proccies et al but firming up my position (if you can say that these days) for a push for the top come the autumn mig season!

Thursday 2 August 2012

Wi Jammin'

Despite it being the worst summer for birding that I ever recall, I managed to jam 2 Crossbill wsw over the garden last Friday. I got quite excited and ran around the house shouting for a little while, but then something else must have come up as I've only just remembered them six days later. When I went to add them to my spreadsheet of happiness, the last Wanstead record I have down is from the beginning of June. That, ladies and gentlemen, is patch birding during the summer. It can only get better from here though, one of the lads had two Blackwit (cripping, stonking, mega MEGA) over earlier this week. I was in bed.

Derek