A flurry of spring patch gank

Well, the usual suspects have arrived in force... resulting in some much needed, if hardly unexpected year-tickage.

Nothing extraordinary, but the return of regulars like chiffchaff, willow warbler, sedge warbler, blackcap, gropper and whitethroat to the patch, along with the usual hirundines, puts me on 72 for the year or 82.44% in real money.

That's just enough to slingshot me back to the top of the leaderboard... for now. The worrying thing is we're still only in April... and with the exception of one or two sitters (perg and jay still to get, for example) leaves me with precious little to look forward to.

It's going to be a long, long summer!

Breakfast birding

The bird feeders outside the recording studio window have proven productive at 7:35 the past two days. Yesterday there was a smashing drake blackcap, while today there was a hen brambling. What will it be tomorrow? 56 spp / 72.10%

French hen

 = 54 spp or 69.53%
Take that Tintin!

Banging them in

A chiffchaff in the garden prompted us to review our scores, and we found we'd been a bit lax of late. An update including snow bunting (less than annual), mallard (not golden) and perg brings us to 53 species or 68.24%. All good stuff. Just behind Shaky (who was on tour recently I saw) and that pesky upstart Tintin. How did he get out in front??
And in other news we bumped into our absent friend Statto a couple of weeks back in the studio. He passes on his best wishes even if he can't be arsed joining in the competition.

Another little bunting sighting

Following my badly seen but calling vigorously fly-by little bunting across the garden and down the lane in a force 8 gale last month, Old Spoons jammed into presumably the same bird on Galley this afternoon, and he got shots too, before it inconveniently disappeared again for the rest of the afternoon!

Old \Spoons, this pm (Ciaran Cronin)

Presumably both sightings involve the same bird seen in the same area by one lucky observer back in October, but I guess there's no way of knowing. There can't be many (if any) spring records of little bunting in Ireland, so chances are its the same individual, Hope it finally settles down a bit!

Quiet otherwise, although 2 chiffchaffs and a black redstart indicated a bit of movement through the crease - missed the latter last year too, so that was a welcome year tick! 70 species up for the year...

Snowy migrates to Galley

Following the use of VAR Seppy gets the prize...

A much deserved winner with a cracking flycatcher.

Peacock

An almost tropical wander this afternoon in the sun produced a flock of 16 crossbills over high, and a jay. A very early peacock butterfly was also notable but doesn't count. 46, and onto the podium.