patch tickage

two (count 'em) spotted redshanks on the lake on monday morning were a full fat patch tick. Interestingly they were there the previous night too but I considered them to only be common redshanks then - but no! Also 3 redpoll flying over this am keeps me nicely ahead of Shakey, by a whopping 0.01% - hoo hoo!

Wading through treacle....

Haven't popped in here for the while... well, it has been hotel silly season, hasn't it?

Nothing much to report either -- all very subdued on the patch front -- like the title says... patch birding of late has been akin to wading through treacle. Very little progress for the (admittedly lacklustre) effort invested.

Black-headed gull was about the best addition to the tally since the last post... until around 7:30 this morning that is, when I was utterly gobsmacked to clock a flock of eight (count 'em) small waders hurtling by the front garden. Luckily I'd had the good sense to grab a pair of bins before going out the front door. Dunlin -- who'd have thought!

That's a big fat patch tick right there... we simply don't get waders. Just goes to show -- anything can turn up anywhere and all that mallarky. Here's hoping for something a bit more exciting over the coming weeks.

Current tally -- 77 species, and more importantly 93.33% for the year. So, back up to third spot on the leaderboard, and surprisingly still first of the Irish ;-).

Oh well... onwards and... er... downwards, probably!

Boom boom!!

Another short missive to say that Wanstead is crap, only another bloody Wryneck! Three in four years, it is just ridiculous. Oh, and Tawny Owl to take me to 113 or 101.50%. My patch is on fire at the moment, the next thing you know there will be a Golden Mallard on Jubilee Pond......

pretty fly for a white guy

A cracking red-breasted flycatcher today (my 3rd ever for Galley), plus a reed warbler at Shite Lane - top kwality migrants for Galley!

buzzin da patch

Scoped a distant soaring buzzard from de patio this pm - about time!

Nearly there

Quick update from Wanstead, where between rehearsals for my latest hit show I've managed to eek out both Spotted and Pied Flycatcher, Tree Pipit, and completely jam a Green Sandpiper. I'm aiming, I'm told, for 111.33 species for 100%. Clearly I can't see a third of a species, so I need a quick rule check. I'm on 98.81%, but would be on 99.10% if I can eliminate the third. Seppy, that icon of fair play, that bastion of parity, that tower of reasonableness, what say you?

Derek

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!!!!!