Ton Up

 At last ... A brambling over the weekend was the 100th species for the year.

Autumnal highlights so far have been A great shear' on 10 September (a FFP tick no less) accompanied by only my 3rd patch sooty shear' and a pom skua. an indication of how little seawtaching I do rather than their true status .  A fly over grey plover on the 30/9 was only my second ever on patch.

With few, if any, other highlights the patch tally for the year does scrape to a 100 and 80.86%.  Still 12 species required to even get past the 90% barrier.

Happy days

Bushveld

News of Big Royzah

 Yes indeedy, in an almost unprecedented scenario, Big Royzah has finally offered up his patch score, along with news that he has recently patch-ticked marsh harrier, although further deets are somewhat lacking. Suffice it to say, he was off-patch, but the harrier was over his patch so he is ok to count it. He also divulged that he had a cory's shearwater a coupe of weeks back. So thats three whole species that we now know that he has seen this year - black redstart, marsh harrier and cory's - not a bad haul.

In other news, Old Spoons played a blinder earlier today by "helping" me get glossy ibis for the patch year list. Probably best to leave out the details but I was very grateful none-the-less.

All to play for!

Faster than a Barolo

 Yes indeedy, so there I was slumped over me aldi crisp and strawberry breakfast cereal at 8.29 this very am, when I got a call informing me that a barolo shearwater had just gone west past Seven Heads close in (approx 17km east of Galley). Quick as lightening, I grabbed me scope & tripod, thermal mug of tae and me wellies and tazzed up the road, but would I make it in time? 

I arrived at the empty seawatching spot at 8.50, but how fast do small shearwaters fly anyway?

After several anxious minutes of scanning, trying to convince myself that there was still time, suddenly I got on a shearwater that was way smaller than the manxies piling past. "Thats tiny" I thought. And it was. As it flew a bit closer, I could make out the white face, and the more fluttery flight, but the size was the most striking feature. 

I clocked the time of the sighting at 9.09 am - just 44 minutes after it had gone past 7 Heads - but luckily I had been faster!

Happy daze! My second on Galley, after the New Old Snowy winning one of last August.

Reg spills da beanz

 Yes indeedy, there has finally been news from Reg. And it's podium-level news at that. A direct quote from the man himself thusly:

"Overall total this year 154 so far, new average working from of 164.58, this years percentage 93.58- stand out self found bird Great Shear , best bird  otherwise Bairds Sand"

So, now all we need is news from Big Royzah, although that might be a while coming, as he's refusing to respond to any comms thus far....

September still just around the corner...

 Yes indeedy, before we can even get to September, there's been some more good stuff turning up at Galley. First off, Old Spoons banged into a hippo briefly down Dirk on Thursday, but we weren't able to get a decent look at it till Friday, at which point it was ID'd as a melodious warbler

A melodious warbler, on Friday

And then this morning, while still half asleep, I was gawking at the lake, when I noticed a nice juvenile black tern flying about - only my 3rd evah on patch, and my first since October 2013!

A black tern, er, today

So there we have it. A check of the totaliser and prediction win-dicator for the rest of the year shows me needing just 21 more species to break the by now almost mythical 150 species barrier - I'd best get back out there!

1/9 am update: 4 (count 'em!) stock doves from the majik patio (tm) - all to play for!

September just round the corner!

 Yes indeedy - the autumn fun is just about to start! Seawatching thus far has been a pretty lame affair, with only a handful of the larger shears and little else of note, including decent winds! However, 11 (count 'em!) wigeon on the lake this morning, and an unprecedented five coot was indicative of some movement, plus small waders have been belting over in small numbers for the last couple of days - things is picking up at last!

Evening update: Fast forward to late afternoon when a very heavy spell of rain seemed to land some migs on Galley. I found two pied flycatchers and a nice imm male redstart, while old spoons found another redstart and a tree pipit, which I was able to validate. Which was nice! Hopefully get a few more bits tomorrow...

Hoopoe Hoax

 Feels like a race for second place this year (and it is not going to compete for Old Snowy) but a Hoopoe on patch this morning was very welcome. Crap phone pic attached (typical to be the day to forget the camera).