Yes indeedy, there were once again absolute scenes on the majik patio (tm) this very afternoon, when moments after clocking that a/the(?) gadwall was back amongst the mallards, two red-breasted mergansers swam into view! Its only taken 23 years to get this long-awaited sawbill onto the patch list! Proof-of-life shot thusly...
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| two red-breasted mergansers, yesterday |
Yes indeedy, its hard to know where to start really. I'd been up on Galley for a morning seawatch and had 10 great shearwaters and 125 sooty shearwaters through in 1.5 hrs. Conditions did look good but I had some brown envelopes needing opened so I bailed and headed home.
A mere 45 minutes later I got a call that a soft-plumaged petrel had just gone west past Seven Heads (approx. 15km east of Galley). Panic ensued and I changed my trousers (obscure Whalsay reference). Grabbing scope and bins I drove back up to Galley but was worried I wouldn't have enough time to walk out to the seawatch spot. I opted to stop at the "bad bend" and scan from there. Unbeknownst to me, Old Spoons had reached a similar conclusion and was up the lighthouse road a bit. A quick call confirmed our locations.
We waited. 20 minutes. 30 minutes. 40 minutes - how long could it take for it to cover 15 km? My phone rang. "I have it" stated Old Spoons, and I tried hard to fight rising panic that I could easily miss the bird. Eventually I got on a "Fea's-type" with bold black underwings and ridiculously white underparts - "I'm on it" I stammered into the phone, and continued watching as it swung about in the wind, shearing and zipping around. It was hard to stay on it, but I could see that the tail was dark grey, similar in colour to the mantle and wings, and those underparts were so striking. Old Spoons was at a better angle and managed to see the complete breast band, also seen on the bird as it had past Seven Heads.
All too soon, I had a last view as it disappeared west around the rocks at Galley Head, and it was all over. I was shaking for the rest of the day.
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!
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| Two hoopoes, er, the other day |
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| Exhibit B |
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| A western subalpine warbler a few days before yesterday |
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:
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| 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!
Yes indeedy, as the 2024 patch challenge nears the December endgame, there have been developments at both ends of the leaderboard and nothing is set in stone with a little over a month to go.
Basil continues to stand out by his gate, trying desperately to thumb a list down to Squince. But I'd have to be totally stupid to fall for his sob stories again, after the last time.
Reg managed to leapfrog into 2nd place, while Bushveld has come from seemingly nowhere, with no prospects straight into 3rd place with some frankly outrageous stories of having been seawatching. As if!
Luckily tho, he reckoned without the power of the Majik Patio (tm), which produced the all-important goods for me on me birthday (thurs), in the form of a fine female goldeneye, which appeared to disappear shortly after I'd nailed it. Lucky! This pushes me through the near-mythical 100% barrier, whole also keeps me just ahead of Bushveld, and even better, restores me to third place and him in fourth - huzzah!
The biggest mover and shaker of the week has been Shakey, who was also moved to try a Storm Bert-related seawatch yesterday, and who managed to claim a frankly outrageous SIX (count 'em) year ticks - leach's petrel, sooty shearwater, red-necked grebe, great northern diver, long-tailed duck and a goldeneye, which was probly my bird from thurs. This has pushed him ahead of the proclaimers who now take up the lantern rouge and the wooden spoon and who have admitted in a quote yesterday that "it's been a poor year here, despite effort". A bit vague on precisely how much effort has been expended tho hey?
STOP PRESS - some last minute news from Royzah who has just had a collared dove in his garden, which is seemingly patch gold round his way. Not only that, Royzah then managed to tapdance his merry but slightly hungover way along the Donmouth boardwalk just in time to connect with 3 (count 'em) little auks and a little gull, so he's moving up the scoreboard too, but probably not sufficiently to trouble Mr Nimmo of Wanstead who is still happily ensconsed in mid-table mediocrity.
All to play for then - I'd best go for a seawatch...
***Post-Seawatch Update***
A fine leach's petrel heading slowly east off Galley late morning - only my 3rd wan evah off Galley, after 2 on a seawatch in Sept 2022. Moves me back into second spot just ahead of Reg but for how long???
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...
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| An american golden plover earlier |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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!!
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| Wahay! |
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| 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!!
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...
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| A sedge warbler, yesterday |
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| 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....
Yes indeedy, there's still not much happening at Galley. A trickle of common migs in the last few days, with sedge warbler, house martin, sandwich tern and blackcap all gleaned, but not a lot else.
Things got so bad that I was forced to go and validate Basil's red-rumped swallow that he found at Squinse, and has steadfastly refused to document here so far. This is fine though, as I get to showcase my amazeballs pics thusly:
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| A red-rumped swallow |
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| Proof of life, as Basil has a bit of a history with wild swallow claims.... |
Yes indeedy, although the patch has been largely dead for the first couple of months of 2024, the lake finally turned up the goods!
The weekend before last I was checking the lake and briefly glimpsed a bird in flight that I couldn't nail. The nearest I got was possible ross's gull. But thats the sort of bird news that you really don't want to be putting out so I convinced myself it must have been a funny med gull.
Fast forward a week, and I was checking the lake again and saw a bird on the shore that again I couldn't identify. This time, I was leaning more towards forster's tern but it didn't really add up. So I drove down the road for a closer look. It wasn't there. Went back home and scanned again from the Majik Patio (tm). There it was again, with a handful of black-headed gulls, with which it was a comparable size, though different jizz. Back down the road but it wasn't there. Again.
Then I saw it flying around - it was a tern and looked all light grey above - the wings, mantle, rump and tail were all the same shade of light grey, with white around the sides of the neck and a slight mask behind the eye. It landed, and I could see the legs were dark and the bill was chunky and dagger-shaped and all-black. By the process of elimination based on its size and features, it gradually dawned on me that it had to be an adult winter gull-billed tern. Result! Although, sadly not a patch tick, having had one in the same place back in July 2023.
The bird flew up to a nearby ploughed field and hawked around a bit before returning to the lake, always remaining pretty distant and I wasn't able to get anything better than piss-poor record shots. Luckily Old Spoons jammed into it nice and close flying from the ploughed field back to the lake the following day....
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| Cracker! |
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| the gull-billed tern yesterday |
My first contender for New Old Snowy for 2024 too - all good!
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!
Yes indeedy, it's been another red-hot early September period on Galley, with a fair bit of quality birding. Things began with the south-easterlies last week which brought in a few pied flycatchers, spotted flycatchers, whinchats and best of all, a cracking wryneck, which was nice.
As the SE winds continued into the weekend new birds were pretty thin on the ground, but it always felt like there was something lingering somewhere. And sure enough, a last ditch wander down Dirk late on Saturday afternoon produced a belter in the form of a marsh warbler in the fuschia bank. I'd been watching the two large sycamores which were still in the sun, hoping for an icky or the like, when I heard something rustling about close by in the fuschia. A gentle pish and it dropped down to eye level - a gorgeous olivey-green acro with straw-coloured legs! Sadly, it didn't hang around in view long enough for a photo (might have been too close to focus anyway) but a cracker none the less. 19 years to the month since my last one on Galley, so worth a quick reminder of that bird....
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| A marsh warbler 19 years ago (photo: M O'Keefe) |
As if that wasn't enough excitement, I was on my homeward stumble yesterday lunchtime when I came across a huge flock of starlings at Shite Lane. Imagine my surprise when one of them turned out to be a juvenile rosy starling! Managed to get scope views before we lost the bird and it hasn't been seen since. Great to finally get one ON patch, rather than having to count that dubious off-patch pinkish blob at red strand that could have been anything!
And then to top it all off, I scored 11 (count 'em) brent geese this very pm! All to play for!
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...
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| Gull-billed Tern, Kilkeran Lake |
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| Wahay! |
Amayzing! Full fat patch tickage - just like that! Another large slice of luck cashed in! Coot and Redshank! Ooooooof!
A smattering of returning usual suspects kept the scoreboard ticking ever so slowly northward through April, allowing me to bang in swallow, the two martins, willow warbler and whitethroat among others. But the best of April's efforts were to come late in the month... last Thursday (27th) to be precise.
I was checking the shore of the lake for night herons, as you do, when this black and white thing flew overhead... with legs out back that just kept on going. |
| Lanky wee pink-legged wonders on patch |
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....
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| A night heron, yesterday (C. Cronin) |
Majik!
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...
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| Blurred and on the huh, yesterday |
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| Oooooof |
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| More of it |
Yes indeedy, its been pretty good at Galley of late, in an "its early but there still might be something around" kind of a way. A burst of south-easterlies 10 days ago brought a wave of 19 (count 'em) bramblings through - it was quite exciting bumping into birds after they'd just dropped in!
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| some bramblings, er, a week or so ago |
Several black redstarts around too, and lots of chiffchaffs and then yesterday, the highlight of the spring so far in the form of a cracking male ring ouzel just outside the office - nice!
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| a black redstart, day before yesterday |
But of course the major piece of skill was spotting that the Owenahincha cattle egrets which have been hanging around for a couple of months now had followed their cows into a field that was at last visible from the patch! I was able to clock them from the comfort of my trusy swaro scope last friday, at a range of approximately 4km off patch - a whole new low! Huzzah! Only my second ever record from the patch, with the first waaaay back in 2008!
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| 4km, last friday |
And finally, hot news of two (count 'em) gadwall on the lake this lunchtime - all to play for!
Yes indeedy - its seems Galley truly is an unstoppable force this year in terms of rares! Hot on the heels of the previous large slices of luck, I stumbled into an adult winter bonaparte's gull down on the beach last week, whilst out with the Hound of Destiny. This is almost certainly the same individual that netted me Old Snowy last September. Exhibit A, taken in the fog a couple of mornings later...
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| A bonaparte's gull, yesterday |
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| Not a yellow browed warbler! |
I've been grafting away on patch over the last few days - a slave to it in fact. Persistance is paying off though, particularly with waders, including such wonders as a flyover, calling (tho unseen) spotted redshank and just yesterday a fine grey plover on the deck, courtesy of Old Spoons....
majik
