Bumper Seawatch Weekend

 Yes indeedy, it was big shear fun all weekend, with large numbers of both cory's and great shearwaters off Galley - several thousand all told - bumper indeed!

However, it was the year ticks that I was really there to get, and they did not disappoint, with grey phalarope and four (count 'em) fly-by bar-tailed godwits on Saturday, followed briskly and finally by singletons of common tern and balearic shearwater today. Plus I discovered I hadn't ticked spotted flycatcher from the other week.

Majik! And up into 3rd spot, with September right around the corner!

Reg's "Missing Years" may yet hamper his interest in winning the Golden Mallard Shocker

 Yes indeedy, there has been an update from everyone's favourite copper on the beat in Collieston. And, as expected, its a large one.

In a recent missive, Reg summed up his year to date:

"Total just checked- it’s now at 94.28% on 150 species, spring was so awful for passerines this year, then an average autumn for migs should boost my total nicely. Decent edge in Meikle just now, so hoping for a bit more variety there as well. Added Quail this evening which was helpful."

He went on in a clumsy attempt to smooth his way through any potential red-tape pedantics by adding "Nice with the Barolo Shear by the way!" ( #Validated)

As the conversation continued, Reg feigned shock that his score was so high...

"2nds a surprise- but grinding away with a few less than annuals - things like Stock Dove, Treecreeper, LRP and Crane- game on for the big prize then!"

Interestingly, he did let slip that his long time away from the competition may have been deliberate...

"Been a long time keeping my totals as low as possible as preparation!" before adding that any potential Steward's Enquiry into the Missing Years would be impossible 

"Destroyed the data…so will be fake news."

Unluckily for Reg, destroying data is of course futile, as I already have whatever data I may need. Rest assured, I ALWAYS have data...

😬

So, all to play for then - lets see how things play out in the weeks and months ahead....

Utter Bollox

 What more can one say...

Two patch ticks in June: Ringed plover and Redpoll

One patch tick in July: Common sand'

Five so far in August but that does include sparrowhawk...

All is not lost as a couple of little-ringed plovers at the beginning of the month were only the second for patch and I did sneak in a fine Leach's petrel the other night  The first Full Fat of the year.

Not for the want of trying but currently limping along with 97 species and 76.78%

Not so... Happy Days.

Bushveld

Mandatory seawatchery tedium ahoy

A glance at the leaderboard after a lengthy period of neglect revealed I was languishing waaaaaaaay down the order in something like second-last place... which, let's face it, with Reg yet to post a tally, essentially means last.

Despite the fact it was blowing a steady easterly, and Lord Seppy maintains "One should never bother one's hole going seawatching in anything but a howling southwesterly with drizzle and fog," news from a visiting old-school birder that Cory's were passing Galley at a rate of 100+ per hour spurred me into reluctant action. Off I headed for the patch.

A fine Med Gull from the wee causeway was the first year tick, followed on arrival at the appointed seawatching position by a rake (technical term) of Cory's hooching past from east to west with a few Great Shears in amongst 'em. A couple of Arctic Terns added a fourth year-tick in quick succession. Happy daze!

Then just as the clouds parted, the sun came out and everything went dead, a string of Manxies flew into my scope view, towing a browner, tubbier looking bird along behind them. They banked, revealing the trailing bird's muddy-looking underparts. Balearic Shearwater for my fifth (count-em) year tick of the day and a full-fat patch tick to boot.

All of these ocean-gazing japes took less than an hour, without getting cold and wet: that's my kind of seawatching! I would be only too delighted to announce that's me done with seawatching for the year -- but alas I still have no skewers on the year-list... FARCE!

So where does that leave us? Well, added to an eclectic assortment of undeclared year ticks (including gank like Manxie and Puffin from an earlier seawatch, Swift, a rather fine Sabines Gull and a few other bits and pieces) it catapults me to second place on 87.92%.

That's a small bit better!

In which Royzah posts his first score for 2025...

 Yes indeedy. There has been a missive from Big Royzah. A brief missive. He's made his list, he's checked it twice and he is claiming to be in second place. No further details were forthcoming.

This is not good news, as he's ahead of everyone except the proclaimers.

Now we just need a score from Reg and we'll see how far off the pace we all are....

A little challenge for (New) Old Snowy

 Yes indeedy, there is news of a full fat patch tick from Galley. Wednesday pm had been looking good for a seawatch for a few days, so I was up there as soon as I heard that there were a few bits beginning to move. At first, there was just a trickle of cory's shearwaters along with the occasional sooty and the usual numbers of manx.

However, as the afternoon progressed and the south west wind continued to increase, things gradually picked up. A couple of bonxies went through along with two arctic terns, while numbers of storm petrels  began to pick up. After a couple of hours, I got on a gliding "stormie" that was fairly close in - wilson's petrel! We watched it for several minutes as it "bounced" over the waves, hardly flapping at all. No white on the underwing, and a pale bar on the upperwing - excellent!

Numbers of cory's continued to build, with the odd great shearwater going by too. Things were looking good with the wind and cloud cover building up nicely. Then disaster struck, as one of our party (thankfully not me), was summoned home by circumstances that he couldn't control. Bravely, I decided to stick it out alone, after promising not to get anything "too good". 

Things settled down with cory's steadily moving through in ones and two, when I picked up a small skua - adult long-tailed skua, complete with tail streamers! Very nice, and I hoped not likely to get me in too much strife.

Into the last half hour then, and as the sky continued to darken, I got onto a bird that I didn't recognise, flapping and gliding steadily west but not banking that much, just beyond the close stream of passing manxies. Clearly smaller than manx, my first thought was "what is that?", followed closely by my second thought "wtf is that?" I briefly entertained the possibility of it being a fea's, but then it banked, showing very clean, white underwings, belly and tail, with a narrow dark border to the underwing. The wing tips looked rounded too. The upperwing didn't look as dark as manx, and appeared to have a paler patch on the outer wing, but the light wasn't great for seeing much detail. I could see the bird lifting its head a couple of times as it flew along, and saw it had a white "face" with a dark dot for an eye. At this point I realised that the bird had to be a little shearwater, but then promptly lost it in the scope. A brief moment of panic, before I scanned further right, and got on it again. By now, the bird was flying directly away from me, but the flight pattern was strikingly reminiscent of a common sandpiper, with flicking beats and short glides - amayzing!

Once I stopped shaking, I packed up and went home. I had some explaining to do....

Do I win five pounds?