Yes indeedy, it's been another red-hot early September period on Galley, with a fair bit of quality birding. Things began with the south-easterlies last week which brought in a few pied flycatchers, spotted flycatchers, whinchats and best of all, a cracking wryneck, which was nice.
As the SE winds continued into the weekend new birds were pretty thin on the ground, but it always felt like there was something lingering somewhere. And sure enough, a last ditch wander down Dirk late on Saturday afternoon produced a belter in the form of a marsh warbler in the fuschia bank. I'd been watching the two large sycamores which were still in the sun, hoping for an icky or the like, when I heard something rustling about close by in the fuschia. A gentle pish and it dropped down to eye level - a gorgeous olivey-green acro with straw-coloured legs! Sadly, it didn't hang around in view long enough for a photo (might have been too close to focus anyway) but a cracker none the less. 19 years to the month since my last one on Galley, so worth a quick reminder of that bird....
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| A marsh warbler 19 years ago (photo: M O'Keefe) |
As if that wasn't enough excitement, I was on my homeward stumble yesterday lunchtime when I came across a huge flock of starlings at Shite Lane. Imagine my surprise when one of them turned out to be a juvenile rosy starling! Managed to get scope views before we lost the bird and it hasn't been seen since. Great to finally get one ON patch, rather than having to count that dubious off-patch pinkish blob at red strand that could have been anything!
And then to top it all off, I scored 11 (count 'em) brent geese this very pm! All to play for!
