Pied Fly!

 First Pied Fly on patch for 8 years! Even got some ropey pics to celebrate...

Royzah's Rearguard Action

 Yes indeedy folks, miracles do happen and there have even been some birds on the Don. News from Big Royzah (for it was he) confirms that there has been manx and sooty shearwater, arctic tern, bonxie, whimbrel, short-eared owl and even an actual mig in the form of spotted flycatcher in his very garden.

To add insult to injury, Royzah sent a further missive this very morning proclaiming that he has gleaned a further three (count 'em) year ticks today, with tufted duck, pintail and a frankly outrageous little ringed plover! Of course, it turned out after some routine questioning that the LRP was actually found by none other than the estranged nano-bot T2006 yesterday, which was good news. [Ed's note - Still waiting for an updated digital printout from our shiny metal friend to ascertain what he's claiming to be on for 2021...]

All to play for then, Happily Royzah still needs another 27 species to close the gap on the leaders....

Late news - annoyingly, shakey is claiming an osprey over his ever-expanding patch yesterday, so Royzah probly needs 28 more species now.....

Here we go at last

 There's been precious little seawatching weather since the start of July, and what little there has been was last week when I was away. So I had little choice but to drag myself up to Galley for a early morning session this am, and although quiet, it was worth it for a few year ticks.

Best of the bunch were 8 (count 'em) great shearwaters, while 32 sooty shearwaters, 8 storm petrels and 2 arctic terns were also new for the year. Thought I'd gleaned arctic skua too, but I'd already seen that back in the spring apparently.

So, onto 80% at last - and hopefully things will start to pick up a bit now that we're finally into the autumn....

July...Dire

There were no patch ticks in July! which I think is the first time that I've not managed to get a patch tick during a whole month.

not so happy days.

Bushveld

Overdue update

A break in our busy recording schedule has given us a chance to update scores. Unusually for us we are number one. A quick check indicates that in recent weeks we've added quail (fourth patch record), Canada goose (second patch record) and house sparrow to the list. Best of all was whinchat, the first for a while. All this brings us to 85 species, or 105%. Rockin'

 Stork on!

A full fat patch tick this morning when, following a tip off that a Black Stork was headed my way over Dover, I managed to secure it for the patch before tracking it westwards and managing a few heavily cropped record shots. 

100

 That’s 100 species and not percent...  which is a shame really.

 

After a ridiculously cold, windy and wet May the weather has at last improved a little, but only a little.  Patch birding hasn't been a whole lot of fun but to be fair it has been a solid enough start.  Highlight this spring was a Nordic jackdaw which hung around on patch for about 10 days, but as Seppy scoffs it’s still only a jackdaw.  A Marsh Harrier on 23 April was though a full fat patch tick and does count.  The few other bonus birds to be had include an Iceland gull on 2 May and

a pair of garganey on 12 May both of which were only second records. A gadwall on the 9^th is a ‘fifty-fifty’ species.

 

June is as always a quiet affair.  Typically scoring only one or two patch ticks for the year and so far this June it has been the same, with a ringed plover (quite a good bird here) and a few swifts passing over the last few days.

 

Totalling up a 100 species by 21 June is though a whole month earlier than last year, so things are looking strong for the rest of the year.  

 

100 species = 83.33%

 

Happy days

Bushveld