Hello below me!

 Yes indeedy, these are strange times on patch, with plenty missed and some things seen, and a few other bits in between....

Forgot to add a seawatch update from last week which saw me net a bagful of large shears as well as patch goodies such as long-tailed skuas, pomarine skua, grey phalarope and best of all, two full fat leach's petrels! Which was nice.

Away last weekend and an incendiary Old Spoons enpatch led to me missing a whopping eight (count 'em) year ticks, however I was able to claw back a fine whinchat and connect with an even better redstart on monday to close the missed gap to just the six species. or so I thought. The redstart was good enough to get me over the near-mythical 100% barrier too, which is miraculously early - game on!

However, news of a yellow wagtail  and a short-eared owl on patch on tues, followed quickly by reports of a red-rumped swallow by one lucky observer yesterday am and another report of a hobby by another lucky observer fairly had me gnashing my teeth!

All you can do is get back on the horse though, so out again I went after work, and soon I'd clawed back spotted flycatcher for the year, before stumbling into a showy and lingering long-eared owl (shurely yesterdays reported SEO?) which performed well for the quickly assembled crowds...

Easily my best ever views on patch, with only one previous record from dusk one summer evening in 2012.

All good! Onwards and upwards....

September Delights

The last two weeks have been a Patch Birding bonanza.  The large numbers of large shearwaters and small skuas reported along the coast tempted me out to join in the fun.  A seawatch on the 1st produced a couple of long-tailed skuas (Full Fat Patch Ticks) but alas no large shears.  Luckily the winds shifted to the east which meant migs...

The 2nd produced a pied fly, the first since 2015! followed by a red-backed shrike on the 3rd.  Barred warbler (another Full Fat Patch Tick) and lesser whitethroat on the 6th. Spot fly, redstart and whinchat on the 7th were blown away when a visiting birder looking at another red-backed shrike found an adult female BROWN SHRIKE on the 9th.  

Unfortunately a case of Patch Poaching occurred on the 8th when a couple of no goods found a wryneck on patch and kicked it hard enough for me to dip.  

Three full fat patch ticks in one month and 11 year ticks puts me on 110 for the year and 91.67%.

Very Happy Days

Bushveld

banging them in

 Yes indeedy, its been slow and steady on patch the last couple of weeks - not amayzing but just knocking off some regular and not so regular waders and seabirds for the old year list. Wader highlights have involved a single bar-tailed godwit the other evening, plus a few flyover ringed plover, dunlin  and sanderlings. A dodgy attempt to string two distant dark-looking small waders into turnstones was later deemed unnecessary after stumbling across a good 'un thusly...

blurred and on the huh, yesterday

To seabirds then, and while great shearwater  and cory's shearwater both fell back in july/august, I have managed to further glean a total of nine (count 'em) long-tailed skuas, five (count 'em again!) grey phalaropes and a fine 1w little gull over the last couple of days which moves me on nicely.

It must be nearly time for some migs now tho hey?

99...

 Alas, that would be 99 species not 99%.

been a while since I posted any news from Longhaven, largely because there hasn't been much to talk about.

May was steady with 19 species new for the month, which is about average.  Although lacking any migrants, the month did produce the only full-fat patch tick of the year, in the form of good looking hooded crow.  A species that is remarkably scarce along the coast of Aberdeenshire and this bird didn't hang around.  This lifted my spirits and my all time patch total to 169.  Luckily Seppy scored some tree sparrows which are much more worthy of the black scoter.

June can only be described as awful, A month that is always full of hope only delivered a common swift.

July produced a handful of wader species on the Notsogreat pool before it dried out but hopefully some rain this month might return it to its former glory in time for some September rares... er like a ruff would be nice.

This month I've ventured into doing a bit of seawtaching... I've been out twice and scored some nice Manxies and Arctic skua but alas the hoped for large shears haven't materialised... yet.

The patch bird drought continues but it's now autumn mig time and all we need is a sniff of some easterlies and Bushveld will be a happy man.

99 species = 82.50% only 21 more needed for a 100.

Happy days

Bushveld

Sea-ing is believing... eventually

The forecast of potentially good seawatching conditions over the weekend resulted in the predictable barrage of text messages from Seppy nagging me to get my arse to the coast.

I've never been a massive fan of sitting on a headland in the wind and rain watching tiny be-winged dots hurtle by, so I tend to ignore him. However, this being my first year with a coastal patch, with reports of big shears and a brace of Fea's past Galley on Sunday morning and The Proclaimers stretching their lead, I figured it was worth a lash for a few hours on Sunday afternoon.

Traipsing out to the most southwesterly point on patch

So off I trundled to a handy wee spot at the south-west corner of Myross Island to stare at the sea for a bit. There were big shears moving through in numbers. I bagged Cory's right off the bat, added Great a few minutes in, picked up a Stormy a bit later, then Sooty. Four full fat patch ticks and not even half-an-hour in. Not a bad start.

Then I spotted something different-looking fly into the periphery of my view amidst a perpetual onslaught of Manxies. It was about the same size as the Manxies around it, but flew more like a big shear. It had greyer upper-parts, a clearly paler tail, and as it banked it flashed a pristine white belly and... f**k me... almost uniformly dark underwings.

It took a second for the penny to drop. I was looking at my first ever Fea's-type petrel.

Amayzing! As it disappeared into the drizzle, I was literally shaking with the adrenalin. A thorough soaking from a sudden squall couldn't even dampen the excitement. 

Sheltering from a sudden downpour post-Fea's

About half an hour later, just as I was calming myself by contemplating the meditative qualities of Cory's flight, I picked up another Fea's... this one closer, presumably pushed in by the aforementioned squall. Epic!

I was still buzzing as I got in the car to drive home. In a productive few hours I'd moved to within 1% of the top spot, racking up five (count 'em) full fat patch ticks, one of them a lifer. The fact Seppy was off attending some inane event at an inland county up the country was the icing on the cake.

Loath as I am to admit it, perhaps Seppy has a point. Maybe there is something to this seawatching malarkey after all.

Belated update

 It's been a while but as spring is now long gone, and we are on the edge of autumn, I thought I should add the extreas I've not declared. Highlights include ring ouzel and a fly over tree pipit. Other standard fair such as hirundines brings us up to 78 species or 92.49%.

Another patch tick....

 Yes indeedy, and one I was very happy to twitch yesterday morning, as it was a fine 6-year or so breakback on Senor Old Spoons who'd slipped 3 (presumably the same birds, natch) past me one October when I was away for work. Yesterday he was away for work too so it all kind of evens out...

Blurred and on the huh, yesterday

Anyway, the three (count 'em) tree sparrows were a most welcome addition to my Galley list - happy days!