Red-rumped already!

 Yes indeedy, its not even March yet and the first decent mig of the year has already been bagged! And it involved more than a fair slice of jam too. Rewind to yesterday afternoon, with the dog walk looming. In a last-minute change of mind, I decided against driving to Dirk and trudging down and back again, opting instead for a walk along the road from the house. 

After approximately two minutes of trudging east along the road, I spotted what looked like a swallow flying towards me. "But its February" I thought, raising the bins and getting on it. I could make out red around the nape, and when it banked, there was a pale reddish rump patch. "Jeepers, red-rumped swallow" was something like my next thought. I carried on watching as it made its way slowly westwards, before it dipped down towards the beach and out of sight. Somewhat in a daze, I retraced my steps past the house and down to the beach, then over to Kilkeran Lake, just in case it was hanging around but no further sign.

Full fat jammy twat!

Busy weekend of it

 Yes indeedy - its been all go at Galley with a double full-fat patch tick bonanza and several strange species turning up the last few days. 

Friday's excitement was the news that Old Spoons had found a treecreeper down Dirk. Treecreepers are not resident on Galley, and we only know of three previous records, none of which I saw. The bottom of Dirk is full of tall sycamores and is the kind of place that a treecreeper could get lost. A treecreeper heading in there would not be the ideal scenario.

I got down there in minutes and Old Spoons informed me that it had been in the big sycamore on its own, but he'd lost it and he reckoned it was probably in the bottom of Dirk.

Bugger.

However, luck was on my side, as, while slowly scanning the sycamores one by one, I managed to pick it up foraging in some ivy, and got good views as it flitted to the next tree and worked its way up the trunk - absolute scenes! This is what patch birding is all about!

Fast forward to Saturday and I was out early trying to find whatever was about when I noticed a white bird flying in the distance. At first I thought it was a swan, albeit a bit small, but then it turned and I could see it had a big long black beak out the front. Just as it dawned on me that it was a spoonbill, it turned away from me and started heading west, towards Rosscarbery. I tried calling Old Spoons in case he was out and lost the bird altogether. Two full-fat patch ticks in two days - I was on a hat-trick!

Alas, it was not to be, with Sunday failing to produce the full-fat goods. I did glean a wigeon and two lapwings on the lake shore though, and followed them up with a heard-only flyover grey plover today, so not too shabby.

The wind remains firmly in the east for the next few days too...

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!

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?

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!

Lesser is more (of it)

 Yes indeedy, I'm still trundling on at Galley and there's been some good "wins" of late too! Recent highlights include a highly jammy fly-by brent goose while I was slumped over the breakfast table a week or so ago. This is the most regular goose species I get here but they are less than annual, so a bonus.

Even better news came yesterday morning that there was a female "scaup sp" on the lake that had swam into the reeds without being nailed. Unfortunately I was in Kerry trying to secure some brown envelopes from the GAA so had to hotfoot it back yesterday pm before dusk to try and clinch the ID. Luckily, the bird was flying around showing off its white secondaries and grey primaries before it settled in front of the boat house allowing some mediocre but confirmatory lesser scaup record shots thusly:

A lesser scaup, yesterday

Full Fat Patch Tickage! I even managed to get back home in time to scope it from the Majik Patio (TM) and sekure it onto the garden list, which was nice. Additional good news was that Old Spoons has gone to Kerry for a couple of days - ah well!

Sharp-eyed regular readers might think that this bird looks a bit familiar, and indeed it would seem that it is Basil's female from Lough Clubhir that he found last December. You can do a compare and contrast here. Nice of it to do a bit of a tour. News from this pm is that it is safely back on Basil's patch, along with a brace of tufties - would be handy if it pops back here with them in tow, as I still need them for the year!

All good!

On-patch twitching

 Yes indeedy, sometimes the luck falls to others and all you can do is twitch stuff found by other people on your patch. Ah well - it made for a fun day on Sunday anyway with some great birds on patch! I'd been out since early doors, taking advantage of the extra hour but hadn't really seen much other than a handful of blackcaps and a few chiffchaffs. 

I was just nearly done checking the last bits of the patch when I got the news of a pallas's warbler in Dirk. Old spoons had reckoned he'd had a brief glimpse of one on Weds so this wasn't entirely unexpected but when I got there it had vanished once again. Whilst talking to the finder, he suddenly pointed and said "Isn't that a red-breasted flycatcher up there?!?"

And it was...

A red-breasted flycatcher, yesterday

After a while, we managed to get on the pallas's warbler, even getting some validatory evidence...

ooooof, boooom etc

The theme has continued right up to this very am, when I received a text message alerting me to the presence of a female/imm surf scoter on Long Strand. Indeed and it was even visible from the Majik Patio (tm), meaning not only a FULL FAT PATCH TICK but also a "from the garden" tick - result!

Alas, the record shot leaves a little to be desired...

A surf scoter, yesterday - 229 for Galley!

I even went and brought Basil and his gammy leg over to the Majik Patio (tm) so he could validate it this afternoon. With a bit of luck it might get in with the 9 common scoter that are knocking around and hang about into the new year....

Royzah in Red-Rumped Rumpus

 Yes indeedy. Barely has the news got out, but the blog is hopping with an almost live update from Big Royzah.....he's just found a red-rumped swallow on his patch, which is a full-fat patch tick no less.

"It flew past about 100m from me on the golf course and kept going over the river towards town.", said Royzah shortly afterwards.

Skillz

No pics so here's wan I took earlier of the juv American Golden Plover just off patch in Clonakilty...

An american golden plover earlier

Marsh Lane to be renamed Dusky Lane

The last few days on Galley have been fairly quiet on the mig front since getting back from Shetland but I've still been banging in the year ticks pretty regularly. Catching up with spotted flycatcher and greenfinch was a top priority, while jamming a cattle egret from the Majik Patio (tm) was a bit of a bonus.

A spotted flycatcher, yesterday

Even the lake has started doing the business, with up to two (count 'em!) coots, a fine lapwing, a flyover spotted redshank yesterday and today a brace of pintail turned up - top stuff!

Out again for more this am, and bumped into a nice ringtail Hen Harrier over the fields, which showed well before it booted off east across the bay.

A hen harrier, er, today

 No shots of the distant pintails, but I just had a feeling that there could be something else out there today so sacked off opening brown envelopes and went for another wander down marsh lane. I could hear something going "tac" but when I looked, I could only see a phyllosc. It took a wee while to confirm that it was indeed the phyllosc going "tac", and with better views I was happy that it was in fact a dusky warbler!! 

Wahay!

It was really getting dark by this point!

Took a while to get a reasonable shot, as the bird was pretty mobile, never sitting still for long. It was calling nearly every time it moved so it was quite easy to tell which bush it was in, just difficult to get prolonged views! Hopefully it sticks around tomorrow, and that these south-easterlies bring in a few more goodies!!

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, yesterday

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!

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....

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!

Patch Gold Once Again

After weeks of the summer doldrums, I finally thought that I should have a quick scope of the lake this pm, just in case. Imagine my surprise when I saw a tern with an all dark cap sitting on the "beach" with a couple of gulls...

A quick relocation, plus the addition of my glasses from the house and I was back trying to get more on the tern when a coot flew into view and started swimming about - top bobbins year tickage right there! OK they are pretty much annual these days but still.

Back to the tern, but wait, whats that wader approaching the tern? Why its a redshank, which is another year tick, but probably mostly because I'd omitted to tick it back in the winter.

Back to the tern - all dark bill with no yellow tip, no shaggy crest, longish looking dark legs - hmmm, I'm going to need a closer look at this...

Gull-billed Tern, Kilkeran Lake

Wahay!

Amayzing! Full fat patch tickage - just like that! Another large slice of luck cashed in! Coot and Redshank! Ooooooof!

Night 'Ron

 Yes indeedy - its good to be back on patch! After an extended holiday in the tropics, I'm finally back, blundering around Galley, trying to catch up with missing year ticks. A bit better in terms of migrants yesterday (in that there actually were some), with wheatear, willow warbler, house martin all secured for the year.

Best was to come in the afternoon, when I noticed a small heron/owl type bird circling round and then dropping in front of the neighbours house. A quick re-location and lo - a cracking adult night heron in the wee stream flowing out of the lake - full fat patch tickage too! Old Spoons was quickly dispatched avec his lens, thusly....

A night heron, yesterday (C. Cronin)

Majik!

Hooray for Old Spoons

 Yes indeedy, for it was he who rang this morning with news of an adult yellow-legged gull on the beach at this end of Long Strand, as I sat in my warm(ish) office only a few hundred yards away!

A quick race around the house collecting scope and glasses and off down the road, just in time for the whole flock to boot off! Luckily tho, Old Spoons stayed calm and more importantly on the bird as it resettled on the sea, allowing awesome views as illustrated below:

Full fat YLG on the patch!

Shortly afterwards, he found a second adult in the flock! Score! So that was this mornings excitement - patch list now stands at 222 (Greenshank!) and year list trundles onwards to 145 - my 2nd highest score evah!

15/12 Edit - jammed into 3 lapwings in off earlier moving me up to 146! Is there any more to get?

Sea-ing is believing... eventually

The forecast of potentially good seawatching conditions over the weekend resulted in the predictable barrage of text messages from Seppy nagging me to get my arse to the coast.

I've never been a massive fan of sitting on a headland in the wind and rain watching tiny be-winged dots hurtle by, so I tend to ignore him. However, this being my first year with a coastal patch, with reports of big shears and a brace of Fea's past Galley on Sunday morning and The Proclaimers stretching their lead, I figured it was worth a lash for a few hours on Sunday afternoon.

Traipsing out to the most southwesterly point on patch

So off I trundled to a handy wee spot at the south-west corner of Myross Island to stare at the sea for a bit. There were big shears moving through in numbers. I bagged Cory's right off the bat, added Great a few minutes in, picked up a Stormy a bit later, then Sooty. Four full fat patch ticks and not even half-an-hour in. Not a bad start.

Then I spotted something different-looking fly into the periphery of my view amidst a perpetual onslaught of Manxies. It was about the same size as the Manxies around it, but flew more like a big shear. It had greyer upper-parts, a clearly paler tail, and as it banked it flashed a pristine white belly and... f**k me... almost uniformly dark underwings.

It took a second for the penny to drop. I was looking at my first ever Fea's-type petrel.

Amayzing! As it disappeared into the drizzle, I was literally shaking with the adrenalin. A thorough soaking from a sudden squall couldn't even dampen the excitement. 

Sheltering from a sudden downpour post-Fea's

About half an hour later, just as I was calming myself by contemplating the meditative qualities of Cory's flight, I picked up another Fea's... this one closer, presumably pushed in by the aforementioned squall. Epic!

I was still buzzing as I got in the car to drive home. In a productive few hours I'd moved to within 1% of the top spot, racking up five (count 'em) full fat patch ticks, one of them a lifer. The fact Seppy was off attending some inane event at an inland county up the country was the icing on the cake.

Loath as I am to admit it, perhaps Seppy has a point. Maybe there is something to this seawatching malarkey after all.

Another patch tick....

 Yes indeedy, and one I was very happy to twitch yesterday morning, as it was a fine 6-year or so breakback on Senor Old Spoons who'd slipped 3 (presumably the same birds, natch) past me one October when I was away for work. Yesterday he was away for work too so it all kind of evens out...

Blurred and on the huh, yesterday

Anyway, the three (count 'em) tree sparrows were a most welcome addition to my Galley list - happy days!

Two tick day at Galley!

And not only full fat patch ticks,but full-on Irish ticks at that! First thing on the morning of the 12th April, a small dark warbler shimmied up a dead nettle stem, spun round a couple of times and dropped back down into cover - the brief but good view was enough to reveal it was a male subalpine warbler, which was just as well, as it promptly disappeared for the next few hours!

However, returning in the evening with a twitchy Basil Faulty proved a good decision, as we managed to refind it again in the same area. After ditching Basil, and getting Old Spoons on the case, the bird finally started playing ball, and gave amayzing views, as well as calling lots too....

Oooooof

 In between looking for the subalp, I managed to bump into another full on Irish tick in the form of cracking winter plumage dotterel in a ploughed field at the top of Shite Lane Hill. Amayzing scenes altogether! 

More of it

Sometimes Galley is totally amayzing! #WhatAPatch

More Albifrons fun!

A good few common migs around Galley this am, with c. 30 willow warblers, 11 wheatears, 2 blackcaps, 2 whitethroats and a chiffchaff knocking around, but couldn't find anything more exotic.

A late breakfast proved productive when 3 (count 'em) black-tailed godwits flew past the window - more non-numenid wader action!

And then major excitement this afternoon, when positively confirming a suspected common tern, I accidentally found 2 little terns! On patch! Full Fat! I've missed at least one before on a seawatch but they are not easy anywhere in Cork these days, so to finally nail them on the patch was tremendous!