Some seawatching success

Northerly winds seem to have brought about more productive seawatching down here in Portlethen, with a sooty north on Thursday, and Arctic skua finally on Friday. Also finally caught up with grey wagtail. Still no wader passage for me yet

go go gadget guillemots

A wee crack at de seawatching on sat morning in flat calm conditions, which, as Reg will attest, can occasionally produce the goods. Not quite what I hoped, but 2 (count 'em) tysties were a worthy year tick. Even better, when I updated my spreadsheet just now, I realised I hadn't actually year ticked guillemot - fantastic!

Downpours in Leith

All there is to look at on my patch at present are squadrons of young tits, wheatears and whitethroats. I doubt if anyone is interested in updates on them. Grasshopper warbler still siningin, and sporadic chiff. No waders yet. The sparrowhawk juveniles are slowly reducing the local tit and chaffinch population.
Went for a verra long walk up the west coast of Scotland recently, but no birds to report from there either. Still, the wader season is almost upon us, but until then I'll stick to the biking for entertainment.

Da Procs

Autumn not here quite yet

I did manage a Spot Fly back in May before things totally dried up but never got round to posting or updating my score (to 97.46%). Absolutely nothing else since and off to France for a couple of weeks soon so it'll be mid-August before I get chance to get back amongst it. My total is far from unassailable but if we get a decent autumn I could be in with a shout this year.

Autumn is here - yippeee

A few bits of movement these last few days. Started a week or so ago with the first Bonxie of the year, and then waders started doing their thing at the weekend. Saturday brought two flocks of southbound Redshanks (23 birds in total and a year tick), 9 Knot and 9 Teal. Then yesterday there were a couple of Common Sands (virtually but not absolutely annual) and a couple of Sanderlings. There's also been a few Swifts moving swiftly through and some Manxies shearing through.

The Black Scoter remains but is not always detectable. Plus 5 Surfies. I finally got some really dodgy pics of the BS (hand-held digiscoping at 60x) that at least give the right general impression (i.e. a distant fuzzy duck with a glowing bill).




Redshank and Common Sand move the year list on to 106 (85.71%) and consolidates the Bronze Medal Position (but maybe others are just keeping their cards close to their chests with undeclared and unasailable lists....).

Statto

celeb spotting

not on patch, and feck all to do with birding, however, did spot a plethora of celebs at the Nouvelle Vague gig in Kinsale last night - David Beckham was on security, whilst former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan was in the crowd. Highlight however, was Anas Fantabulosa's very own fat dead tap-dancing superstar Boy "Royzah" Castillo on acoustic guitar, complete with flat cap but no whippet, whilst the support band featured north-east blast from the past peeeeter coszzzzzgrove in a fright wig. Anyone still out there at all, and do you have any idea where yer bins are??

A bit of movement through the crease

A cheeky wee common sand this afternoon - things is startin to move!

cory's anyone?

Thats more like it! After arsing about this morning with an arctic skua and some stormies, over 1,200 cory's shearwaters in an hour and a half was a big improvement! Some really close wans too! Bagged a couple of poms just before i left was another bonus - missed both last year!

halfway through

Well now having past the halfway mark probably time to see how one is doing.

"could do better" I think is the mid-term verdict.

A mere 66.2% and a dubious and probably over optimistic sixth position is not where one would want to be at this stage. But then there is hope, looking through the list of species still to be seen gives one a glimmer of optimism still requiring such species as great tit, song thrush and snipe has got to mean that there is a chance to do better and autumn is almost upon us

so here's for the next six months and another 55 - 60 more species should see me through to an easy victory.... Can't be that hard surely?

Happy Days

de seawatchin starts here!

Shame it didn't start this morning when de sab's went past, but I did get out this evening and got meself a sooty shearwater for de year. Ho hum.