Saturday, 5 January 2013

Kick start the cycle

First siskin of the season on the peanut feeder this morning (very dodgy photo below) was a good start, and the catalyst for a quick cycle around the north west corner of the patch to check out the lake. It started badly when the chain fell off a few hundred yards from home... but the trusty Swiss Army Knife soon had me back on track.


Dodgy siskin photo anyone?

I was fully expecting to start racking up the year ticks right off the bat... but it was deathly quiet out on the patch. Things weren't helped by the January West Cork gloom, and it wasn't until I got down to the lake and bagged teal, mallard and snipe that things started to pick up a bit. Chough and treecreeper soon joined the party, swiftly followed by a glorious male bullfinch and a posse of long tailed tits. 

On the back leg and a couple of cormorants and a moorhen raised the tally a tad higher. No herons, no raptors, no tufties, but not a bad hour on the bike, all things considered... and a bit of exercise to boot... bonus!


2 comments:

  1. Easy there Baz me old son - you don't wanna do a Nimmo in it & cash in all yer species in the first outing! Pace yourselves lads, there's 360 days still to go!

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    1. Yeah... but you know as well as I do that my only chance of flirting with the dizzy heights of the leader board are during these first few weeks. As soon as you patch-listing old-timers start bagging migs I'm stuffed.

      Make hay while the sun shines that's what I say... except of course it doesn't... not here... not yet at least.

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