1 step forwards, 2 steps back

a bit of an up & down weekend so it was. Very calm both mornings so was hoping for at least a bit of local migration, if no stuff from further afield. But got nowt in the end. Have spent the last 2 weekend scouring de patch for stock doves - checking every woodpigeon - immensely dull. This has relevance to later in this sorry tale.

Yesterday i spent ages watching some trees cos i thought I'd seen a spot fly at distance. It never reappeared. Immensely dull.

Then I got home and found this on the lake

a yellow-legged gull yesterday (allegedly)

Exactly! Clearly an obvious yellow-legged gull! Except they all flushed and then i got on an LBB and then got confused, which I still am. Yellow-legged gull would be a patch tick, and, as I am ultra-squeaky-clean when it comes to me patch list, I don't think I can have this as I don't know any of the features. Except it looked like a dark-backed herring gull with yellow legs and a big beak. So I don't know. Its in the "Pending" file, although Big Gav (who once kind of partook in the Golden Mallard challenge, factfans) was threatening to send the boys round if I claim it - he knows about gulls, you see.

Anyway, the upshot and tremendous climax to this long & harrowing tale of woe is that whilst I was dicking around trying to scope the gull, 2 stock doves flew thru the scope! Year tick! Whoop! No more looking at pigeons for the rest of the year! SCORE!!!!!

Surfin the waves

Yep, got myself together to look at the sea the other evening, and there was a female scoter among the eiders in the gathering gloom. I started to convince myself it must be a female surfie. Then a herring gull started to harass it and it opened its wings. Bingo, full fat patch tick.

a few big shears thru

Monster seawatching de last couple of days - 800 cory's & 57 great shears last night, followed by a whopping 1,107 cory's & 290 great shears this am - that's 2,254 big shears over 6.5 hours, which is 5.7 shears per minute! Busy!

Patch tickage!

Yeah! A wader tick! Ooof! Indeed and it was! A fine wood sandpiper no less, graced the lake edge with its presence over the weekend, but seems to be missing today. Number 195 for de patch in fact. Eat me!

Ton up

Well, a flock for curlew over Boghall last night shows wader passage is happening, and also takes me to 100% for the year (just 74 species needed for that where we come from). We can feel my hands around that prize. We might even dedicate our next album to it.

bulmer's off Galley

wisnae me tho! Bugger!

stunning seawatch

Got me arse oot to Galley for 15.30 yesterday after hearing of some big numbers of big shears off Mizen. Very glad that I did too! The mist was well down when I got out there, 1st bird through the scope was a manx, followed shortly after by a cory's  and 3 greats! A good start! The mist gradually lifted, but the large shears were still passing incredibly close - within 200 metres some of them! Tremendous views!

And then a fea's-type petrel flew past, which was nice!  and an hour later there was another one! And then 40 mins after that came number three! All slightly different on plumage - amayzing!

Finished up with about 250 cory's and 50-odd greats, plus the supporting cast included several more year ticks - 5 (count 'em) long-tailed skuas, 7 poms, 3 arctics, plus a jammy turnstone too! A few sooties and bonxies thrown in too. All good! Will have to keep seawatching though, cos I still need sab's and common tern!

Oh look - 4th place!