red kite ya bas!

Very wet and horrible again today, but when the rain stopped early afternoon, I was surprised to see a large raptor up getting mobbed by crows. When I got bins on it, I was even more surprised to see it was a red kite  - untagged too, as far as I could see - no sign of any tags thru the scope either. Result (136) - and an Irish tick too! It drifted slowly north, and went down over the area of felled trees, towards Owenahincha. Otherwise, still 1 female scaup and 1 female tufted duck on the lake today - too baltic to venture far from the house though!

some ducks at last

A scan of the lake early afternoon produced 1 female scaup in with 3 tufted ducks, while 12 teal were lounging on the bank.  Things need to get a bit more exotic very quickly, if I'm going to increase the 2009 patch tally.

Merry Christmas a'body!

Not much birding today but did catch sight of the bullfinch in the garden again, which is encouraging for the 2010 patch challenge - tricky enough to get round here, so they are! The lake was still partially iced this morning but still no obvious sign of exotic (or even boring) wildfowl piling onto it to escape the wintry freeze elsewhere.

Christmas is upon us!

Another wintery day on the patch with lots of activity around the house - firstly a female bullfinch was in the garden again (same bird as 3 weeks ago?), with 2 fieldfares and c. 20 redwing in the fields by the house.  A buzzard and c.25 golden plover were also flying around this afternoon. Must try and actually have a walk around the patch before the end of the year, just in case I'm missing something!

1 swallow does not make a winter

Had a juvenile swallow past the window this morning - easily my latest one ever, but December records in Cork are not unheard of, per the trusty CBR.

ton up

A fieldfare flying over Long Strand this lunchtime was number 135 for the year, meeting my 100% target for the patch challenge. Just need to bang in a few surprises before the end of the year to secure top spot!