fisher of kings

whoop! whilst watching (count 'em) two green sands on the lakeshore this pm, a kingfisher flew over the top of them and off into the reeds - fantastic! Not quite annual and need to be jammy for em - all good!

fea's fun

feck! that makes four now! wow! wasn't my find but was really glad i hadn't bailed out 3 minutes earlier when I said I was going home! really enjoyed the swearing afterwards as it scooted past! Fantastic!

Foxed

Putting in the hours, but no movement in Boghall. The best we could manage was a comedy fox trotting across a grassy field with a pheasant leg in its gob. Not a wryneck, and does not get us closer to Seppy, but it does mean there is one less pheasant out there.

Da Procs with Nocs

Par

Momentous news from this humble patch - par has been reached, courtesy of a star Wryneck. In London, next to the bloody Olympics, a bloody Wryneck. And not just a Wryneck, but my second Wryneck in three years. Did I mention Wryneck enough yet? Slight panic yesterday when it was found, as I was in Cornwall drowing in big Shears, but I pulled myself together and reasoned that the patch is of such quality that only a really really stupid Wryneck would consider moving off overnight. Smart bird, it stayed, and even though I am floating around on almost no sleep, was about the first bird I saw this morning when back on the patch. So, that's 100%, and anything else from here on in is a bonus.

It's been a while.....

...and not for lack of trying but finally the summer drought lifted this evening with two Green Sands heading south - first here for quite some years. A juv Little Gull was not a year tick but was more obliging for the camera.

So now 107 species (=84.92%). Well off the pace but actually just twp species behind this time last year.

Statto

quarterly score declaration

Time for my quarterly score declaration...

119 species/92.6%

Nothing earth shattering of course, cos you'd have heard about it.

I'm a little intrigued about what counts as 'on patch' though. I know we've been over this before, so if someone could refresh my memory that would be grand.

If I can see my patch and the humpback whale at the same time, can I count it (despite the fact that it isnt a bird)? It was only a few hundred metres offshore, as was I (on a boat, by the way...)

I reckon it is marginally better than wryneck. I've never seen a wryneck breaching, mind you...

leapfrogging da prockies

a fine flyover green sandpiper last nite brings me upwards of the 95% barrier - never been so high so early in da year! Scorchio!