Few, migrants!

With Seppy blawin' on about how epic the spring has been hereabouts, I thought I'd best add a little counterbalance from a few short kilometres down the coast.

While Galley (and indeed, seemingly every other bit of the Irish south coast) had Hoopoes and other such spring goodies dropping from the skies with apparent abandon, Squince seemed to be the only place immune to the influx. Despite countless hours scouring every piece of perfect Hoopoe-devoid-Hoopoe-habitat on patch, there was nothing doing. I did find a fine Hoopoe not far off patch at Myross Woods -- which was, errr, nice.

A Hoopoe not far off-patch at Myross Woods. Balls!

The days of traipsing finally yielded a very-hard-earned Black Redstart, but that was it on the migrant front apart from the routine arrival of the usual suspects, with Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Swallow, House Martin,  Sand Martin, Sarnie Tern, Gropper and Sedgie to keep the tally ticking over. No Wheatears yet though.

The only other birds of note in April were a Great Crested Grebe on the lake and a Marsh Harrier (a full-fat patch tick no less) high over the reedy bit at the back of the lake, being mobbed by hoodies before it immediately fecked off roughly in the direction of Skibbereen.

So... an utterly unremarkable spring here when all said and done, one which sees Seppy (after his Galley Spring Mig Bonanza) breathing down my neck for second spot on the podium.

Fux sake!

south-east again

Yes indeedy, with the bank holiday weekend just around the corner, the wind did the decent thing and swung back south-east  yesterday, with a lump of rain overnight promising the chance of some more migs. Out pretty early considering, and I'd barely closed the back door when I could hear a grasshopper warbler from somewhere over the road - it sang again briefly as I hurried out the gate to try and pin it down but I didn't hear it again. Ah well. Less than annual here, and one I thought I'd probably missed with all the fine weather last week.

Out round Galley then and there were a few bits moving but all Irish stuff, no sign of anything from further afield. Reasonable numbers of willow warblers and chiffchaffs plus a blackcap and better again, my first whitethroat of the year!

a snipe, yesterday

But the best had to wait till the second slog round after lunch, when, bemoaning the fact that there were no yellow wags in the ideal cow field, suddenly I heard one calling as it went over - it flew around for several minutes before eventually deciding to land in the ideal cow field and allowing decent views. Yellow wagtails are definately less than annual here and easily missed when they do occur, so to get one on the deck was a real bonus!

a yellow wagtail in the ideal cow field, yesterday

So thats the craic now! The good spring continues....

Spring Sprong

 Yes indeedy, this has easily been my best spring evah at Galley and now that it appears to be calming down, I've finally got time to write it up!

Things were kicked off by me missing hawfinch and turtle dove, both found by Old Spoons up to his tricks again. However, I responded by bumping into two (count 'em) hoopoes feeding away on Marsh Lane, which was nice!

Two hoopoes, er, the other day

Exhibit B

I nearly went to work the next day but thankfully common sense prevailed, and I just hung about on patch instead, finding another hoopoe and seeing two more, while waiting for Spoonsy to come up with the goods. Which he duly did in the form of a female western subalpine warbler in his very own garden - skillz! Luckily I was quickly on site to validate the record thusly...

A western subalpine warbler a few days before yesterday

Top stuff! A day sweating on a hillside dreading "good news" followed, however I was back on patch by late afternoon in time to bump into a trio of hoopoes flying into Shite Lane - were these new birds? hard to tell but they could well have been! A fine fly-by shelduck and a cracking male yellowhammer and a merlin were also welcome additions for the year list!

But the biggie had to wait until the following day! A smattering of overnight rain promised new arrivals and I'd got no further than the end of my road when I heard a snippet of this from the massive bush down by the beach...

Song 2

So that was pretty much the next couple of hours trying to see the fecker but eventually myself and Old Spoons (#Validated) were able to get some views of most of the nightingale as it continued to sing sporadically from deep cover - amayzing to get one on patch, and an irish tick too! This is also about the only bird I've ever seen in this bush!

A few other bits of lesser gank have also been accumulated over the last week or so, including redpoll, house martin, dunlin, common sandpaper, 2 pintail (patch gold again!), tufted duck, sedge warbler and even kestrel, which was nice! The stats show that reaching 100 species by 11/4 is also the earliest I've ever reached that milestone - ooooof!

All to play for then!