It is if you're Chinese…
Now that January is over and done with, we've got the pleasure of February to look forward to… Fan F*^king tastic..
Some ok birds this month seeing that I've hardly set foot in the patch. The best of the bunch include the long staying ring-necked duck on Miekle. But good patch birds which are annual but tricky include a Iceland gull, mistle thrush, snow bunting, hooded crow and a goosander. All good stuff.
Plenty of gaps but hardly busting my (ever expanding) gut on the Patch so far this year. The weather has been truly awful and looks likely to stay that way. But a few hours out there should push the total up nicely.
However for now 57 so far, 37.75%.
puts me somewhere near mid-table which is where I usually am.
Happy Days
Bushveld
Friday, 31 January 2014
Thursday, 30 January 2014
we're halfway there (living on a prayer)
Yes indeedy - i've seen 50% of my patch target total for 2014 (thats 72 species, factfans) - AND i appear to have leap-frogged the prockies & Mr Nimmo into 2nd place! Definitely a reason to play some Bon Jovi (not).
Latest two were buzzard and razorbill, gleaned just yesterday. Only another 50% to go!
Latest two were buzzard and razorbill, gleaned just yesterday. Only another 50% to go!
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Tits and cock keep things moving
Very quiet on patch on the bird front... but then I have already got most everything I'm likely to get before spring. Still marching slowly in the right direction though.
A flock of long tailed tits down near the lake last week, followed by a woodcock over the garden a few evening just begged for a witty and suggestive post title, and more importantly take me to 67.59% for the year.
Had a much more exciting, if untickable encounter on patch this week though. I bumped into a couple of otters fishing in the stream that runs along the western patch boundary. Luckily I was downwind, and managed to follow them upstream for around half an hour or so. At their closest they were no more than 20 feet away from me.
It does zero to increase my patch tally -- but definitely counts as my most amazing wildlife encounter "on-patch" -- and up there with the best of them.
Unfortunately it was a "grab the bins and go" sort of morning... so the "proper" camera was left sitting ont the kitchen worktop. I was left juggling the mobile phone and bins and managed this record shot to mark the occasion.
Happy days!
A flock of long tailed tits down near the lake last week, followed by a woodcock over the garden a few evening just begged for a witty and suggestive post title, and more importantly take me to 67.59% for the year.
Had a much more exciting, if untickable encounter on patch this week though. I bumped into a couple of otters fishing in the stream that runs along the western patch boundary. Luckily I was downwind, and managed to follow them upstream for around half an hour or so. At their closest they were no more than 20 feet away from me.
It does zero to increase my patch tally -- but definitely counts as my most amazing wildlife encounter "on-patch" -- and up there with the best of them.
Unfortunately it was a "grab the bins and go" sort of morning... so the "proper" camera was left sitting ont the kitchen worktop. I was left juggling the mobile phone and bins and managed this record shot to mark the occasion.
Monday, 20 January 2014
Tickled pink
Whilst lying in bed thinking about the wonderful up coming BOU conference on upland birds (http://www.bou.org.uk/conference/bou14-upland-birds/), I heard a flock of pink-feet fly over. Takes me one ahead of Seppy, and always good to get this true grog bird.
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
quiet enuff
not a whole lot to shout about lately - 4 year ticks over de weak-end: sparrowhawk, wigeon, peregrine and grey heron. Nearly caught up with the Proclaimers tho - whoop!
Sunday, 12 January 2014
Banging 'em in early!
A break from the rain and a glimmer of sunshine yesterday saw me sidle off for an amble around the patch mid morning. I'm glad I did.
Curlew, merlin, and collared dove gave themselves up one by one... all tricky birds on patch, so great to get them early in the year. A bullfinch on the way home added to the tally, and skylark from the garden takes me to a none too shabby 65.22% -- and we're still not even half way through January!
Seriously running out of regular stuff already though... I imagine it's going to be a struggle from here on in.
Curlew, merlin, and collared dove gave themselves up one by one... all tricky birds on patch, so great to get them early in the year. A bullfinch on the way home added to the tally, and skylark from the garden takes me to a none too shabby 65.22% -- and we're still not even half way through January!
Seriously running out of regular stuff already though... I imagine it's going to be a struggle from here on in.
Friday, 10 January 2014
Seppy in Tiny Patch Shocker
Since the good people at Google redid their satellite google maps of Wesht Cork, I've been meaning to double-check my patch area, just to ensure that I'm squeaky-clean as far as adherence to the rules is concerned. When I did this ages ago using graph paper, a pencil, a window and a calculator I think I discovered that the patch was a bit over 2 km squared, however when I did it the other night using the map tools I made an interesting discovery...
Eat this! Never diet again!
No, I mean this bit...
The area in blue is my whole patch, and I was pretty generous in some areas, as there's bits included that I've never walked over at all. And its still only 1.605 square km! So now I'm wondering which bit of adjacent land to include - if I took in the lake & Rathbarry woods I'd get coal tit & jay every year, and treecreeper would be a patch tick. Or I could run a bit out to Red Strand and then be able to count rosy starling & pec on the patch list as I've seen both there. What to do, what to do...
Eat this! Never diet again!
No, I mean this bit...
The area in blue is my whole patch, and I was pretty generous in some areas, as there's bits included that I've never walked over at all. And its still only 1.605 square km! So now I'm wondering which bit of adjacent land to include - if I took in the lake & Rathbarry woods I'd get coal tit & jay every year, and treecreeper would be a patch tick. Or I could run a bit out to Red Strand and then be able to count rosy starling & pec on the patch list as I've seen both there. What to do, what to do...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)