Hello below me!

 Yes indeedy, these are strange times on patch, with plenty missed and some things seen, and a few other bits in between....

Forgot to add a seawatch update from last week which saw me net a bagful of large shears as well as patch goodies such as long-tailed skuas, pomarine skua, grey phalarope and best of all, two full fat leach's petrels! Which was nice.

Away last weekend and an incendiary Old Spoons enpatch led to me missing a whopping eight (count 'em) year ticks, however I was able to claw back a fine whinchat and connect with an even better redstart on monday to close the missed gap to just the six species. or so I thought. The redstart was good enough to get me over the near-mythical 100% barrier too, which is miraculously early - game on!

However, news of a yellow wagtail  and a short-eared owl on patch on tues, followed quickly by reports of a red-rumped swallow by one lucky observer yesterday am and another report of a hobby by another lucky observer fairly had me gnashing my teeth!

All you can do is get back on the horse though, so out again I went after work, and soon I'd clawed back spotted flycatcher for the year, before stumbling into a showy and lingering long-eared owl (shurely yesterdays reported SEO?) which performed well for the quickly assembled crowds...

Easily my best ever views on patch, with only one previous record from dusk one summer evening in 2012.

All good! Onwards and upwards....

All quiet on the Singapore front lately...

Or so it would seem. While the UK and Ireland is gearing up for a mig-fest, what has been going on in Singapore? No idea - I have been away for a month and will be away for another month before getting back mid-October. 

Work has taken me from Iceland via Greenland to Canada and I am now back in the UK for a month. So highlights such as ivory gull, narwhal and polar bear don't count much in this bigger picture.

But before I left, a few species were added to the patch list. The best of these was probably the discovery of a second owl species at a roosting location. This time, Sunda scops owl. After the initial find, a further two were also found in the same area. And the two buffy fish owls were also present nearby. Which was nice. 

Not as unusual, but still counting on the list was my first migrant of the 'autumn', a barn swallow. And then I departed just as migration was really starting. Getting back in mid-October the scene will have changed, and I may have some catching up to do...