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 earlier

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!

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.

A few more additions

 Yes indeedy, the seawatching has continued to be quite good, although the overall numbers of things other than Cory's has been quite low. However, as always, one is enough for the year list! Since my last update, even Basil has dragged his sorry ass out for a cursory glance at the sea and he even strung gleaned a few year ticks, but I'll leave them for him to declare, when he gets a moment...

So, over the last week or so I have netted a fine brace of grey phalarope, a species which for some reason (most probably apathy) has oft evaded me on patch. In addition, a cracking adult sabine's gull and a common tern while following the sab's, have both been most welcome. Numbers of cory's shearwaters have remained quite high, while great shearwaters have been chugging past but in much lower numbers.

Corys on the left; greats on the right

Up into third place in the league table, although undoubtedly this will not have been updated for ages by the other playas. Looking forward to the mig season getting underway any day now - all to play for!

Seawatching scores

 Yes indeedy, there have finally been some decent south-westerlies, and a result, there have finally been some decent seabirds passing the patch's outer limits! A massive 10.5 hr seawatch on Sunday plus another 6 hrs on Bank Holiday Monday resulted in a minimum of (count 'em!) 1,611 cory's shearwaters, 118 great shearwaters, 3 wilson's petrels (missed another 5 - ouch!), 2 long-tailed skuas, 5 balearic shearwaters, 2 pomarine skuas, 3 arctic skuas and 2 bonxies.

Not a bad couple of days birding! 

a telescope, yesterday

Still behind the goggly-eyed proccies in 5th place on the overall table tho - irksome!

At least it's stopped raining now...

 There goes another June and July, only this time without any sun and very few birds.

June did produce the only full fat patch tick of the year so far, in the form of an avocet on the Notsogreatpool on the 25/6.  This was followed by an Arctic skua cruising along the cliff tops on the 26th.

July delivered mute swan and swift both on the 9th and there's been nothing else since.

With a ten year average of two ticks for June and three of July, this years tally of two for each month is bang on average.

The forecast looks set fair for the beginning of August which could lower the water levels and provide some nice muddy edges for some nice waders; fingers crossed.  And I might look at the sea at some point. But for now the year list sits at 106 species and 86.65% of the total, which nudges me up into silver medal position.

Happy days

Bushveld

Easy singles

 Yes indeedy, its finally time to wave goodbye to the June doldrums and get back in the seawatching saddle for the start of the autumnal festivities! I did glean a few bits in June, namely common sandpaper, puffin and arctic skua, but for the most part its been slow going over the last few weeks.

Fast forward to this morning, and once the rain had eased, and I'd woken meself up with excitement, I headed out for the first proper seawatch of the autumn. And, while there wasn't a whole pile of stuff going through, I did manage to knock in single cory's shearwater, sooty shearwater, balearic shearwater, and bonxie, as well as 3 (count 'em) storm petrels. Which was nice.

Hopefully there'll be a bit more wind and some more big shears for the rest of July...

a May...zing

 May 2024 was quite a month.  A prolonged spell of easterlies brought in a flood of scarce migrants up and down the coast with most fenceposts adorned with a red-backed shrike or two and the bushes stuffed full of warblers.... well almost.

The month started well enough with along with the expected migrants a drake garganey floated around the Notsogreatpool and a cracking hooded crow did adorn a fencepost; only the third for the patch and easily the best one so far.  A wood warbler skulking around the Moat on the 4th May was only the 2nd for the patch.

More patch fillers during the month were supported by some fine patch birds including a green sand and osprey; also both seconds for the patch and a greenfinch was only the third ever for the patch.  The stunning male red-backed shrike was expected this spring and the third year running one has graced the patch.

A total of 20 species in May was the highest May total since records began and put me on a 102 species for the year and 83.38%.  Also the highest ever for this time of year.

Happy Days

Nothing much to crow about

 And so the year trundles from spring into summer, with barely a tick to be found on patch *SIGH*.

Barely doesn't mean none though... and a fine Jay (less than annual over the few years I've been doing this patch... didn't get one last year... FFS!) and singing Reed Warbler were welcome additions for May.

That pushes me up above the 90% mark... but as Seppy seems all too fond of reminding me, essentially means I'm f****ed 'til Autumn (barring the poxy seawatching season, which I suppose I'll have to drag myself out for later in the summer if conditions are good... I mean bad... er... you know what I mean).

On the non-bird front, the patch was invaded by giant fish in May... I counted upwards of 60 bARSEking sharks from just below the wee graveyard on Myross Island last weekend. So, in the absence of any interesting bird shots, here's a non-birdy fish clip to keep you all entertained.

Quail hello there!

 Yes indeedy, I managed to bumble into a full-fat patch tick last thursday in the form of a quail that the Hound of Destiny kindly flushed. Which was nice. Sadly, Old Spoons also managed to verify/validate it later on cos I stupidly gave him too precise directions. Ah well. Karma and that eh?

No photos but here's a snap of a whitethroat and a sedge warbler from the patch last weekend instead...

A sedge warbler, yesterday

Er a whitethroat, yesterday also

Anyway, that along with a few other bits and bobs such as common sandpaper and whitethroat moves me on up (as it were) to a bang average 95 species for the year, which is pretty much exactly where I should be as the May doldrums settle over the patch for the "summer". Checking the percentage scores, I see I've dropped in just ahead of Bushveld in the league table - sweet!

See you back here on the 1st July for the start of the seawatching season....

Springing ahead... ish

May rolled around yesterday, and the welcome addition of Whitethroat elevated me to a healthy 88.56% on the leaderboard. Majik!

Spring brought with it a smattering of the usual migratory suspects, including the hirundines, the common warblers (here's looking at you Willow, Blackcap and Sedgie) and a couple of handy Groppers. Wheatears finally put in an appearance in late April, and a couple of Sarnie Turns off the wee headland at Tra an Oilean were most welcome.

Other notables included a couple of SEOs on patch in April, and a fine Yellow-legged Gull in amongst the large gulls at the Blind Harbour roost.

One of two (count 'em) SEOs on patch in April

Undisputed bird of the spring on patch... and one of the birds of spring for the whole of County Cork, according to our infamous local birding TD (the Irish version of an MP), was the fabulous Red-rumped Swallow duly highlighted by Seppy in this post (thank you kindly sir). Seppy twitching birds on my patch is the ultimate form of validation, and is rapidly becoming something of a habit. Long may it last.

Here are a couple of shit record shots of it, just because...

Look at the red rump on that wee fecker!

Apart from the swallow, it's been a quiet spring on the rarities front, with nothing much out of the ordinary turning up anywhere. And it will be June soon... roll on the summer doldrums *sigh*.

Onward!

Playing catch up

 With such a slow start to the year and being well behind on my average by the end of March, things could only get better, as they say.

April is usually a frustrating month up here, with Spring not quite sprung and winter clinging on but not delivering.  This year winter did cling on as usual but April certainly did deliver, A total of 34 patch ticks over the course of the month; easily a record total for the month.  Obviously many were birds typically scored in March and 18 of them were 100% 'ers, i.e. get seen every year, so don't really count for much.  However a few nice extras included a scattering of migrants at the end of the month, with ring ouzel and redstart being the best of the picks.  The two goosander on the 8th were only the third records for the patch.

Bird of the month though was the 1st winter Glauc sat in a field on the 4th April, being only the second record for the patch.

Which puts me nicely on 82 species and a much improved 66.31%.

Happy days

Bushveld

Reid it and weep

 For we are back! We had a mechanical with the server that runs the recording studio in 2023 that meant we lost our lists and our next couple of albums. The latter was a shame as they were by far and away our best work (think OK Computer meets Bizarro with elements of 4AD releases). Anyway, we are back and up and running. This weekend topped up the list nicely with northern wheatear, ring ouzel and Eurasian curlew all added to the list. These gems brought us to a whopping 68 for the year. As we are chasing 86, this translates into 79.07%. Come on.

Big Up Basil

 Yes indeedy, there's still not much happening at Galley. A trickle of common migs in the last few days, with sedge warbler, house martin, sandwich tern and blackcap all gleaned, but not a lot else.

Things got so bad that I was forced to go and validate Basil's red-rumped swallow that he found at Squinse, and has steadfastly refused to document here so far. This is fine though, as I get to showcase my amazeballs pics thusly:

A red-rumped swallow yester, er last week, er ages ago

Proof of life, as Basil has a bit of a history with wild swallow claims....

Slow spring

 Yes indeedy, the spring has been that slow so far that even the Golden Mallard has shown no signs of migrating! Oops!

I have gleaned the odd year tick here and there tho, including a few common migs such as chiffchaff, willow warbler and wheatear, which was nice. A tystie down dirk brought a certain Stevie G to mind, while an adult iceland gull in the next door field was seasonally expected. More recently, I just happened to be lookin oot the window at a fortuitous moment to catch a fine shelduck go by, thusly...

A shelduck yesterday

Things finally picked up a bit this am when I stumbled across a load of slightly out of date but still perfectly edible cans of beans and a tasty pasta sause which had obviously all just come in on these freshening southerlies....

Just fresh in, by the looks of it

So there you have it - thats me up to date till the next biggie shows up...

Oh, so, so slow

 Nearly the end of March and my first posting of the year and it really isn't worth it.  With a tally of 47 species and at 38.01%, 2024 has been my slowest start to a year ever, with all previous years having scored in excess of 50 species by this time. Little grebe in February is the only notable species being the third year for this species and the first time they've not been in the autumn.  All other species are pretty much 100% ers.

The first summer mig of the year appeared today in the form of a rather nice chiffy flitting around a hedge and brought hope of better birding days ahead.

Happy Days 

Bushveld

Ooooo Migrants

 Yes indeedy, the long wait for spring is finally over. It started on thursday pm when I bumped into 2 fresh-in chiffchaffs bouncing around the gorse bushes on the top lane. By friday, numbers had increased to at least 9 birds although I'm sure there were way more than that, as birds weren't being very showy in the stiff easterly breeze.

Managed to get out again on sunday, when in addition to 4 more chiffs, I banged into a very smart male black redstart briefly, before it booted off. Always good to get a black red nice and early in the year.

Another quick look in the wheatear-less fields this lunchtime and sadly, while they were still ear-less, I did glean a sparrowhawk for the year and another chiff.

Any day now for the ears, hopefully!

Distant dodgy ducks

 Yes, indeedy, on a weekend tip-off, I had a go at scanning for a pair of long-tailed ducks yesterday evening, as it had become sunny and calm. They had been seen from Cloghna Head at the other end of the beach, which is about 2ish km away....

Took a while, but I picked them up in the end. Hardly giving themselves up but they looked the part, honest guv! The ID was clinched when they upped and flew miles out to sea as it got closer to dusk, to roost in deeper water, as previously documented by Hope-Jones (1979). #ScienceInaction

In other news the gull-billed tern is still alternating between sitting on its humph in a field beside kilkeran lake or else pouncing on eart-worms up in the ploughed field. Here's the best pic that I've managed of it.

A gull-billed tern yesterday

Onwards and upwards - the dugbirds will be back soon!

Mystery solved

Yes indeedy, although the patch has been largely dead for the first couple of months of 2024, the lake finally turned up the goods!

The weekend before last I was checking the lake and briefly glimpsed a bird in flight that I couldn't nail. The nearest I got was possible ross's gull. But thats the sort of bird news that you really don't want to be putting out so I convinced myself it must have been a funny med gull.

Fast forward a week, and I was checking the lake again and saw a bird on the shore that again I couldn't identify. This time, I was leaning more towards forster's tern but it didn't really add up. So I drove down the road for a closer look. It wasn't there. Went back home and scanned again from the Majik Patio (tm). There it was again, with a handful of black-headed gulls, with which it was a comparable size, though different jizz. Back down the road but it wasn't there. Again.

Then I saw it flying around - it was a tern and looked all light grey above - the wings, mantle, rump and tail were all the same shade of light grey, with white around the sides of the neck and a slight mask behind the eye. It landed, and I could see the legs were dark and the bill was chunky and dagger-shaped and all-black. By the process of elimination based on its size and features, it gradually dawned on me that it had to be an adult winter gull-billed tern. Result! Although, sadly not a patch tick, having had one in the same place back in July 2023.

The bird flew up to a nearby ploughed field and hawked around a bit before returning to the lake, always remaining pretty distant and I wasn't able to get anything better than piss-poor record shots. Luckily Old Spoons jammed into it nice and close flying from the ploughed field back to the lake the following day....

Cracker!

the gull-billed tern yesterday

My first contender for New Old Snowy for 2024 too - all good! 

Every Little Helps

 So, that's January out of the way... and February kicked off with yet another year-tick (#YAY). A distant but nonetheless fine example of a first winter Little Gull sitting amidst the Herring Gull roost on Rabbit Island yesterday elicited a satisfying "Fux sake. Jammy c**t" out of Seppy, which is always a good sign.

Crap phone-to-scope photo... cracking early year-tick

The patch flew along in January, in fairness, fuelled by some very handy lingering birds from December (here's looking at you, Ring-necked Duck, Scaup, Goldeney, Cattle Egret and... drumroll... Slavonian Grebe). A Coot on the lake towards the end of the month was another welcome addition, and a full-fat patch tick in the form of a superb redhead Goosander on Squince Lagoon was pure gold.

Is this Seppy's bird from Kilkeran a few weeks back?

All of which January japery takes me to a healthy 89 species for the year, or 71.01% in real currency. Which is great... but leaves very little scope for tickage until the migs start rolling in (I hope). Onwards!

Full Fat Ahoy!

 Yes indeedy - there I was, carefully scoping the gull flock on the lake for anything decent at all, when all of a sudden I noticed a big, cigar-shaped duck type thing flying around - Goosander ya bas! Amayzing! Lost it behind the annoying pine tree and couldn't pick it up again, but a quick scoot down the road to check more closely didn't reveal any further sign. Total jam - just happened to be in the right place at the right time! That plus the pair of wigeon this am moves me up to 73 or 52.02% for the year - first full fat patch tick since the pink-footed goose last October - now on 226 for the Galley list, which is the most important list of the lot!

The Return of Reg

 Yes indeedy - everyone's favourite showbiz policeman Reg Hollis has stepped out of retirement, indeed at the same time as stepping into retirement! Confused? Don't worry, the net result will be Reg out front at the end of the year, most likely with New Old Snowy also in the bag. Still, hopefully a bit of additional competion will lead to all the other competitors giving it 110% to try and upset his dastardly plans!

Reg eagerly puts out the news of his Green-winged Teal that he's found already on patch this year....

Best get back out there lads!

All Hail Lord Bushveld

 Yes indeedy, the 2023 patch challenge has finally drawn to a close, even though its been sewn (stitched?) up since about mid-July. Lord Bushveld has somehow managed to join Sepp Blatter in the exclusive Three-time Winners club, with a fine final score of 112.22%. Congratulations, and look out for the Golden Mallard (worth at least £50 on ebay) arriving in the post sometime around June 2024!

Herewith are the 2023 final scores, in order to allow eternal reviewing and scrutiny....

Some scores, yesterday

Top marks to Basil Faulty for being "best of the Irish", even though he's Welsh and fair play (if thats not a step too far) to Sepp Blatter for managing to make the podium yet again, despite everything. Last and indeed the least said the better, commiserations to the Proclaimers who were forced into a DNF* due to mid-year laptop failure in combination with general ineptness. Hopefully they'll be able to get it together again for 2024.

Happy New Year to all contenders and faithful blog followers (if there even are any?) - the 2024 competition is now open! Worth a moment of contemplation to consider that this is the 20th year of the original patch challenge competition! How cool is that?

*Did Not Finish