another mig

Despite the great conditions for a fall, digging out the migs at Galley has been hard since those goodies turned up last week - did find another wryneck, which was nice, but the only year tick i managed was a lesser whitethroat as dusk fell last night - still - rarer than ybw here!

Brown Shrike excites

About time I posted, and no better time...Brown Shrike in Collieston!
See http://colliestonbirding.blogspot.co.uk/  for a bit of an account of the fun.
The winds still in the SE as well, so could be more to come tomorrow.
Off to have a glass of wine and a bit of a rest.

back home & back in the groove

After a very successful few days on Shetland, with several members of the Golden Mallard contest, it was back home to Galley and easterly winds! A pied flycatcher at Shite Lane yesterday was new, while today's kwality came in the form of a wryneck  and a juv red-backed shrike. Have a pic...

PS Just realised I forgot to tick common tern from the other day - 4th place beckons!

Here we go

Autumn getting into full swing now. The weather promises a good few days, kicking off yesterday with a brace of Blackdog Yellow-browed Warblers - first here for a few years. Plus a brace of Lesser Whitethroats and, at last, the first Blackdog Chiffy in a couple of years.

Here's a few dodgy distant digi-scoped ducks and things from recent days:

Now on 116 species (=89.92%)

Statto

spot fly twitching

Was "working" just now when a text came in alerting me to the presence of a spotted flycatcher in Dirk - off I went to verify it, and it was one! Yeah! Year tickage! And i get to waste more time blogging about it afterwards! Double bonus!

It's been a while.....

A demanding summer of reciting football facts and figures has somewhat gotten in the way of more important stuff such as updating on here. Hopefully normal service (i.e. dodgy digi-scoped pics of distant ducks on the sea) will now be resumed.

Undoubted highlight of the autumn so far was Greenish Warbler on 25 August. Admittedly a corpse could've found a Greenish in the region that weekend. Before finding this bird, I'd dipped Scholsey's first Greenish and Reg's Greenish and then connected with Bushveld's (off-patch) Greenish. Anyway the Blackdog bird cavorted in some willows on the rifle range and became the first Blackdog first of 2013.

A few other bits and pieces of non-annual - Black-wit, Rockit, Pied Fly and Brent come to mind.

Now on 111 species (=86.05%). A few bankers to come yet.

Statto

Tickidie doo dah, tickidie day

Boghall does the business again, this time with a full on patch gold tick of hen harrier. Yup, a ringtail cruised its way along the back of Hillend and Caerketton on Sunday, taking bird of the day award from greylag goose which was a year tick (sorry purists). A grey wagtail a couple of weeks ago (and again on Sunday) brings the total to 77, which means 104.05% for us boys. And we had time to work the coast on Sunday too.

Blazin'

The Procs.