A good hobby this birding lark!

It had been dismally quiet on patch for what seemed an age... then, as tends to be the way, it all kicked off at once. Well -- if you can call three year-ticks "kicking off" -- it certainly felt like it after the dearth of activity.

First an overdue whitethroat which turned up yards from home after pounding the patch for hours (typical).

Then the next day I heard the swallows making a commotion, dived out the office door bins in hand to be greeted by a 2CY hobby coming straight at me, going hell for leather. It passed overhead -- only about 20 feet up -- and was gone. Great... if brief... views. Class bird!

Finally, one of my favourite spring migrants... probably because I can identify with its tendency to be late all the time... a spotted flycatcher turned up in next door's hedge.

Those three take me to 74 for the year -- or 89.70% -- STILL languishing in third place.....

Other news: I discovered that I can actually see a narrow sliver of sea from one elevated corner of the patch . It's a long way off, so not sure I'll be able to nail anything at that distance... even with the super duper Meopta S2 scope... but it does introduce some tantalising possibilities.

another trio

A ring-tail Montagu's harrier flew past my house yesterday...  that was nice.

My bird of the year so far.

This is the third one from the garden in the last four years!  A quite remarkable set of records seeing that  Monty's are a bit of a rare up here.  (I must admit that I didn't see the last one.  I was sitting in an airport lounge as my wife watched one from the kitchen window).  

A stunning male summer plumaged snow bunting last Wednesday was extraordinarily late and a pair of corn buntings cling on in the patch.  Once common, but now down to the last pair.  

Three in this last week put me on to a tidy 119 for the year and 76.48%.  

Happy Days

Bushveld

thats more of it ted

So, still stuff moving through even though we're into late May! A dunlin on the lake yesterday plus 14 (count 'em) sanderlings on da beach this am were both new, as was todays collared dove. Best of the lot was a very late singing grasshopper warbler this morning out on Galley - thought I'd missed 'em this year but thankfully not!

So safely still ahead of old bushy!

Happy days!

It had to be done...

A two hour sea watch first thing this morning eventually produced the goods with a fine sum plum long-tailed skua flying north, close to shore.  It's my first long-tail for many a year and my first ever spring one on the patch.  So very pleased I was indeed.

Better still though was the one that flew low over my head when I was out with the dog the other side of Cotehill Loch.  This one drifted south across the reserve and across the loch towards the Ythan.  A bitter sweet moment as it flew within a few metres of my garden when I wasn't there.  So alas no garden tick for me.  I'm now spending the rest of today looking out my front room pretending to do some work.

Other good birds included a fine summer plumage black guillemot.  A very good bird for the patch plus a lot of extra seabirds that I hadn't seen this year and a migrating dunlin for good measure.

This mornings haul of year ticks puts me on 116 species and a better than average 74.55% .  A head of Seppy for the first time ever me thinks.

Happy days

Bushveld

Still lagging

Not got the pace, not in the race

Some nice birds though...

A full fat patch tick in the form a bluethroat at the weekend was as far as I can remember, through my ever thickening fog of dementia, a first for me on the patch.  Not that I found it.  The bird found by a local birder on a fine sunny Sunday morning drew the biggest twitch of birders that I've seen on the patch (or in the region) for many years.  I suspect more people went to see this bird than did the p-g tips last year!  bizarre.

Other nice birds include a fine male red-backed shrike in the village (courtesy of Reg) and female marsh harrier which are both firsts for a few years.  A few waders passing through include a wood and common sandpipers on Meikle Loch and ringed plover over the garden.

These and other bits and pieces put me on 106 for the year and 68.12%.

Happy Days

Bushveld

getting back at haddock

I managed to add four species to the year list on Saturday: turtle dove and whinchat, neither of which are guaranteed, plus swift (at last) and best of all, a grey plover which was only me 4th ever record for the patch, and was the first one on the deck.

All good!

Ticking over nicely

I added four species this weekend, which could have been more if Seppy hadn't done the dirty on me and dragged me down to London for a meeting when migrants were arriving all along the coast on the Friday. Still, Arctic skua and lesser redpoll were handy and Sandwich tern and sedge were warbler were to be expected.