Banging 'em in early!

A break from the rain and a glimmer of sunshine yesterday saw me sidle off for an amble around the patch mid morning. I'm glad I did.

Curlew, merlin, and collared dove gave themselves up one by one... all tricky birds on patch, so great to get them early in the year. A bullfinch on the way home added to the tally, and skylark from the garden takes me to a none too shabby 65.22% -- and we're still not even half way through January!

Seriously running out of regular stuff already though... I imagine it's going to be a struggle from here on in.

Ready... steady... go!

Another year... and the start of another patch challenge. Yay!

Didn't manage to get out of the garden today except to head "off patch" for a walk on Long Strand late in the afternoon. The beach extends onto Seppy's patch on Galley, where I graciously pointed out a kingfisher sitting on a post to help his year list along a bit ;-).

A pretty "invigorating" afternoon on Long Strand...

Despite being "confined to quarters" for the day I did rack up the occasional species to finish the day on 32.02%. That's none too shabby for a first day tally, and with a bit of luck I should get out on the patch proper tomorrow. Tally ho!

1st of jan japes

Out with the usual 1st of Jan spring in my step this am but didn't get anything particularly unusual. Best of it was a kingfisher,  courtesy of Senor Faulty - saw it a couple of times last week, but a good one for the year - they ain't around every winter!