migs in north-westerlies?

More Seatrack fun this morning, so of course the wind was totally arse for Galley. North-westerlies are great for the Bridges but crap for here. Still, I gave it an hour and a half and was rewarded with a balearic shearwater (great views - my first one for the survey this year!), an arctic skua and a few arctic terns - ho hum.

Did Dirk again then, as it seemed the best option out of the wind - the amount of cover is still terrifying but todays imaginery bird was a good one - I was staring into a sycamore and suddenly thought "what if yellow-billed cuckoo shuffled out into view now"....unfortunately one didn't but can you imagine the rush if it had? The great tits are still there, by the way.

Dirk came good late in the day though with news of a lesser whitethroat - good birds for here, have only seen a handful at Galley. I made it up there in time for brief but clinching views as it settled down to roost for the night (119).  Wonder what else is in there with it...

hanging in there

Birding with a hangover is not easy. I'd optimistically left all my gear out ready downstairs so I'd be straight out the door at first light but imbibery of the black stuff the night before put paid to that (4.5 measly pints - disgraceful!) However, I still wasn't up to much a couple of hours later and it wasn't till news of some rares in the south-west came in that I finally got my act together and got in amongst it on patch.  The previous days south-easterlies didn't seem to have brought that much in, but I did manage to stumble into a turtle dove.

A half-arsed scan of the curlew flock by the lake late pm produced a black-tailed godwit (118), which I thought was quite impressive given my still banging hangover! I'm never drinking (murphys) again etc etc.

caps

Flat calm in Dirk Bay this morning so was hopeful of stumbling into something. Four blackcaps (116) and a willow warbler wasn't quite what I had in mind, but better than the usual great tits (which were also still there).

Also discovered I'd forgotton to tick off common scoter earlier in the year - bonus! (117).

twitchy sab's!

After two days of huge south-westerlies and bugger all seabirds (too windy?) news of a juvenile sabine's gull hanging about on patch was most welcome. It was quite a big twitch in the end with 7 people there at its height, and kev even got out of the car (though he was scanning from inside it with the window up when we got there - what's that all about?)

A scan of the seaweed strewn lagoon at Long Strand produced another year tick this evening in the form of turnstone - two in a day, I'm on fire! (115).