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.

All wet... but all right too!

Out and about again today for a while on the bike -- no sign of dipper or kingfisher, but did rack up some more "inland gank" as Seppy likes to call it. I got caught in a deluge half way around patch -- luckily I'd had the foresight to put the waterproofs on, but still not much fun riding through the rain, peering through raindrops on the bins.

That's Irish birding in January for you!

When I finally arrived at the lake the juv mute swan and a little grebe I ended last year with were still there -- RESULT. End of day two and I'm on 47.43% -- with a fair few "sitters" still to come.

Going to run out of options soon though, so good to get a healthy early lead in.

Nosing ahead!

A dismal weekend patch wise and a slow start to the third week sees me surging into the lead. Well, OK, stumbling inadvertently to the front then....

Didn't think I'd get out on the patch at all today, but an opportune trip to the post office gave me the chance to take a detour around the far side of the patch to the lake on the way home. Nothing new... just a couple of cormorants and the ubiquitous teal. Out of luck I headed for home and nearly took out a female sprawk as it hurtled across the road after a song thrush. A dipper on the little stream added to the tally... both without having to get out of the car. Bonus!

That's 47 for the year... or more importantly 55.76%... nudging me in front for the first time. It's quite a nice place to be... guess I'd best savour it while it lasts, which inevitably won't be long.

Sprawk photo is from last year in the garden... but enough of a tenuous link with this post to use it I think.