On-patch twitching

 Yes indeedy, sometimes the luck falls to others and all you can do is twitch stuff found by other people on your patch. Ah well - it made for a fun day on Sunday anyway with some great birds on patch! I'd been out since early doors, taking advantage of the extra hour but hadn't really seen much other than a handful of blackcaps and a few chiffchaffs. 

I was just nearly done checking the last bits of the patch when I got the news of a pallas's warbler in Dirk. Old spoons had reckoned he'd had a brief glimpse of one on Weds so this wasn't entirely unexpected but when I got there it had vanished once again. Whilst talking to the finder, he suddenly pointed and said "Isn't that a red-breasted flycatcher up there?!?"

And it was...

A red-breasted flycatcher, yesterday

After a while, we managed to get on the pallas's warbler, even getting some validatory evidence...

ooooof, boooom etc

The theme has continued right up to this very am, when I received a text message alerting me to the presence of a female/imm surf scoter on Long Strand. Indeed and it was even visible from the Majik Patio (tm), meaning not only a FULL FAT PATCH TICK but also a "from the garden" tick - result!

Alas, the record shot leaves a little to be desired...

A surf scoter, yesterday - 229 for Galley!

I even went and brought Basil and his gammy leg over to the Majik Patio (tm) so he could validate it this afternoon. With a bit of luck it might get in with the 9 common scoter that are knocking around and hang about into the new year....

Royzah in Red-Rumped Rumpus

 Yes indeedy. Barely has the news got out, but the blog is hopping with an almost live update from Big Royzah.....he's just found a red-rumped swallow on his patch, which is a full-fat patch tick no less.

"It flew past about 100m from me on the golf course and kept going over the river towards town.", said Royzah shortly afterwards.

Skillz

No pics so here's wan I took earlier of the juv American Golden Plover just off patch in Clonakilty...

An american golden plover earlier

Marsh Lane to be renamed Dusky Lane

The last few days on Galley have been fairly quiet on the mig front since getting back from Shetland but I've still been banging in the year ticks pretty regularly. Catching up with spotted flycatcher and greenfinch was a top priority, while jamming a cattle egret from the Majik Patio (tm) was a bit of a bonus.

A spotted flycatcher, yesterday

Even the lake has started doing the business, with up to two (count 'em!) coots, a fine lapwing, a flyover spotted redshank yesterday and today a brace of pintail turned up - top stuff!

Out again for more this am, and bumped into a nice ringtail Hen Harrier over the fields, which showed well before it booted off east across the bay.

A hen harrier, er, today

 No shots of the distant pintails, but I just had a feeling that there could be something else out there today so sacked off opening brown envelopes and went for another wander down marsh lane. I could hear something going "tac" but when I looked, I could only see a phyllosc. It took a wee while to confirm that it was indeed the phyllosc going "tac", and with better views I was happy that it was in fact a dusky warbler!! 

Wahay!

It was really getting dark by this point!

Took a while to get a reasonable shot, as the bird was pretty mobile, never sitting still for long. It was calling nearly every time it moved so it was quite easy to tell which bush it was in, just difficult to get prolonged views! Hopefully it sticks around tomorrow, and that these south-easterlies bring in a few more goodies!!

Dawdling along

 It's been a while since posting anything, mainly cos there's been very little to shout about.  

August passed by without notice.  Managed to pick up six species for the month: kestrel, dunlin, golden plover, ruff, bonxie and common tern, all making up the numbers.  

September was no better, except that I wasn't here for half of it; which was nice.  Sooty shear', yellow-browed warbler and a merganser was the months tally.  The merganser though was only my third for the patch, reflecting my lack of seawatching as it should be annual, if only I could be bothered.

Anyway, these rather meagre pickings hauled me up to 116 for the year and 94.82%.  

The good news is there's still 8 species to be found before the end of the year which have been recorded 80% of the years, so should be almost bankers.

Happy days

Bushveld

All going on at Galley

 Yes indeedy, the autumn has definately begun all right! It was a lovely still morning here so I thought it might be worth a quick punt around Galley. Bit of a bad start when I remembered my wellies were drying in the house rather than resting in the boot of the car but hey, crocs are inappropriate in all weathers right?

I was idly checking some meadow pipits when I happened across a similar sized bird with a bright eye ring and creamy malar stripes, but pretty clean otherwise on the breast, with a pinky red bill - "not a pipit" I mused, before I began to think about ortolan. Before I could take the thought much further the birds booted off and I watched it fly off to a distant phone wire where it landed with a couple of linnets. As I stalking closer in my trusty crocs, it dropped into stubble with more linnets and then the whole flock booted all around, leaving me none the wiser as to where it had gone.

Luckily, it hadn't gone far, and was back up on the phone wires, allowing better views and I could finally be sure it was an ortolan, especially when it began calling like one!

Once Old Spoons had been set in motion, we were able to refind it again and he even got shots

An ortolan bunting, yesterday

The excitement wasn't over as barely had I reached home but Old Spoons was on the blower babbling about an untagged juvenile white-tailed eagle over his gaff and heading my way. A quick sprint to the Majik Patio (tm) and hey presto - there it was! Huzzah! Reckon its prob OK to tick this wan for the patch hey?

A white-tailed eagle heading my way earlier (pic C. Cronin)

Marvellous!

Seppy's Scrutineering gets out of hand

 Its all lies

Big Royzah Goes Seawatching

 They say lightning doesn't strike twice and they should know but at long last we have had some news from Big Royzah (everywan's favourite deceased tap-dancing trumpeteer) (for it is he) and indeed he has even eventually, after weeks of questioning, even released his percentage score as of yesterday.

In addition, he divulged that he had indeed been seawatching and had indeed sekured the following species for his year list:

2 (count 'em) bonxies

2 (count 'em again) arctic skewers

1 manx shearwater

1 long-tailed skewer

After another few prods, he also coughed up his patch percentage to date, which you can see over on the right - just above Shakey's score, who is safely in last place. Nice to see.

So there we have it - more Royzah updates as they happen!

In other news, now that it is finally September, I've been getting in amongst it with the autumn migs at Galley netting a fine tree pipit yesterday (first since 2014) and a whinchat courtesy of old spoons today. Marvellous.