A 3rd for the patch

Nothing much doing in a saunter round Shite Lane late morning, with 2 wheatears the only proof of migration.  Was outside on the phone to de langer early afternoon when a grey plover flew over calling away - excellent, cheers fella! Only my 3rd ever on patch, with 2 in the same week back in Sept '07 - its been a while (123) !

big shears at last!

The SW blow continued this morning, with conditions looking really good first thing. It was a slow enough start, but 2 great shearwaters (122) west were worth the wait, especially the second bird which took its time ambling past nice and close - was beginning to think I wouldn't get one this year they've been so thin on the ground.  Managed another 10 or so sooty shearwaters, 6 bonxies and 1 arctic skua in the 2 hours, plus some storm petrels too - all good!

a slight improvement

A rather surprising good SW blow came on this afternoon - surprised Windfinder anyway. Got 3 hours in at Galley but failed on the (hoped for) large shear front. Did rack up 12 bonxies, 7 sooty shearwaters, 1 balearic shearwater, 1 common tern, 1 arctic tern, and c. 5 storm petrels though, which was a bit more variety than of late.

still nothing doing at sea

Tried another hour of seawatching this evening in a promising south-westerly & occasional drizzle. The first five minutes was quite promising, with a single bonxie and sooty shearwater west, but the rest of the hour was pants! Got another bonxie right at the death, but I was bored stupid by then! No immediate improvement in the offing according to windfinder either - ho hum!  

green sand

Struck lucky this evening with a fine green sandpiper over the lake (121). Didn't see it as it was getting pretty dark, but it called 4 times before disappearing. A common sandpiper was also calling - waders are beginning to move!

seawatch southwester

Did a watch this morning as part of a coordinated project around Ireland trying to see how many balearic shearwaters are around. The project is along the same lines as the Seawatch SW project, but with less mindless swearing cos Tom Mckinney isn't involved!

This was the second watch, but alas, it was light north-westerly - not usually any good for Galley. There wasn't much seabird action, although 4 common terns and a turnstone were both new for the year (120), while watching a peregrine trying to catch storm petrels out at sea was pretty cool. Highlight was 6 fin whales - one was reasonably close in, maybe 4 - 5 miles out, with at least 5 more blowing right on the horizon - cool! A while since I've had any off Galley, hopefully they'll stick around for a while.