Lets take a look at what ya could have won....

 Yes indeedy - bully's special prize this very am consisted of a heard-only bullfinch in the vicinity of the garden - called 5 or 6 times so I'm having it

Not done yet

Yes indeedy - just as a certain Mr Faulty was languishing on his laurels, settling comfortably into 2nd place on the podium, and indeed repeatedly trying out the "Best of the Irish" moniker, I managed to strike back this very am with a fine long-tailed duck just off the beach - excellent! I probably manage to see one of these on patch every 2 or 3 years, and they do sometimes hang out on the lake over winter. Regardless if this one hangs about, it was there today and that was the main thing! 

Actually, I just took a look at my patch stats spreadsheet, and it has revealed that said species is actually much rarer then I realised, with only three previous records; 2013, 2016 and 2020. So only my 4th record for the patch! Bingo Bango! Just need one more to put me back into second now....

still grafting

 Yes indeedy, the autumn continues....

A snow bunting dug out by Old Spoons early last week was invaluable for the year. A brief mid-week mini-break resulted in me missing both jack snipe and marsh harrier, however, this year missing the odd thing doesnt seem to make much difference. Out early the next morning netted me a redwing (at last) and also a much scarcer woodcock - think only my fourth time seeing one on patch. Things continued to pick up the following day when a red-breasted flycatcher was found at Shite Lane - as with the last one there, this bird was tricky to see well, and was almost always on the move, but over time it was possible to see the key features and thus rule out lightening having struck twice!

Beginning to think I might be far enough ahead of the rest of the pack now....

In other news, royzah claimed his first slavonian grebe on patch in over 10 years last week....

Another weekend of marginal gains

The lake produced the goods again today. Although the much questioned long-tailed duck appeared to have done a bunk, there were near-krazy scenes on the patio early pm when news broke of a "pintail on patch".

Despite nearly losing it over the piss-poor lack of directions, I was still calm enough to figure out the observer probably wasn't scanning a distant pool near red strand from a random field on patch, as has happened previously, and that the bird was most likely on the lake, and therefore visible from the magic patio. Which it was.

Not an arctic skua

Exhibit A. Only my 3rd sighting on/from patch ever! And photographed expertly too, despite the lack of fone digiscoping equipage. Only one more species needed to break the 100% barrier...

In other news, Boy Royzah scored big today in the form of a lesser whitethroat on his patch, which moves him to within one species of the outright lead.

With Basil Faulty on the ropes and reduced to digging up drainpipes to try & create some better wader habitat, Royzah just needs to string a starling into either a waxwing or a little auk (or ideally both) to make a stout claim on the golden mallard. Of course he may need to get the bus to Wanstead & wrestle it out of Derek's pudgy mitts first...

Basil's new wader scrape

ooo waders

Galley is pretty crap for waders. This is mainly cos it isn't an estuary, its a headland. So a flock of 16 bar-tailed godwits high-tailing it south over the house this eve was pretty good. Well worth getting wet socks for, certainly. Though why they were going south is anyone's guess - probly to do with large circles or something - or is that only off Flamborough?