Passed the ton

Whilst busy fondling jack snipe yesterday I managed to scrape pass the 100 mark for the year.

Started off with a short-eared owl that was taking an interest in the snipe roost but managed to avoid the nets.  Then followed a small flurry of year ticks including corn bunting, snow bunting, twite and brambling.  Unfortunately by the time I'd finished with the snipe the weather had deteriorated somewhat and there was no time to check for migs.  Still five year ticks within a couple of hours all from the same spot at this time of year is much appreciated.

101 for the year, still only 80.16%

Further adventures with Big Royzah

Yes indeedy, for the fat-fingered fool has been larging it on his patch yet again. This time he's claiming several near-mythical species, namely fieldfare (aye right), bramblingtonfinch (as if), and the biggest load of bollox yet, snow bunting.

If we are to believe this tissue of lies, Royzah claims that all this excitement moves him onto 98.05%, which is supposedly his best score since 2012!

Everyone better go have a lie-down now

A couple more...

Banged in bramblingtonfinch and a fine brace of firecrests (count 'em!) on tues am to slip me over the near mythical 90% barrier - doubt i'll get much higher now...

Boom! Oooooof! etc

stagnating in a puddle of dross...

that about sums it up.

A few birds for the year included coal tit, jack snipe and of course a number of yellow-broweds.

hmmm..

I think that's it.

76.19% ffs

Phew!... and far between

Well, it's been a sloooooooow summer and autumn... with bugger all to report on patch, truth be told.

I was beginning to think that the year-ticks had dried up as the rest of the field came tearing up the leaderboard (or ambling, in Seppy's case, natch). And then the lake... which is always spectacularly underwhelming... at last started to drip feed a few scores!

Pretty, but generally pretty useless -- the lake on patch

It started with a duck! A gadwall, to be precise... which was a fine patch tick just sitting there on the lake, plain as day as I cruised up on the bike for a quick scan a week or so back. Then a few days ago (the morning after Seppy bagged his) a COOT turned up.

Coot-tastic phone-binned record shot of a patch mega

What are the chances? It's the first coot on patch for at least eight years... which makes it pretty special in my book. The gadwall was a first, but to be honest I'm much more excited about the coot. Not sure why. Could all of this mean the lake is about to deliver a fowl bonanza in the final quarter?

Probably not... but all this recent shenanigans puts me on an even 100% for the year, and takes me temporarily back to the top of the leaderboard, which is nice.

It also means that if anything else turns up it will make next year harder. Every silver lining has its cloud, I suppose.

Midtable Mediocrity

Thats how its looking for this year at the moment! Still, banged in coot and long-tailed tit over the weekend so not too bad - neither annual and its been 3 years since I last had a roving tit flock (if you can say that these days).

Verification of la coot below - still present today! Please park sensibly.

110% Verified, natch

Still singing!

RB Fly on the patch was a full-fat patch tick as I missed the last one in 1999. Ends 16 years of hurt, though it never stopped me dreaming. Is the Golden Mallard coming home? It's coming home!