Although I've so far failed to add any further year ticks in December, overall the
144 species that I've gleaned at Galley in 2013 makes it the second best year total since records began (2004), beaten only by last years monstrous
149. With a whopping five full fat patch ticks, it shapes up pretty well, leaving me just 3 short of the magic
200 barrier! First of the year's patch tickage was this fine female
long-tailed duck, back in January.
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| Exhibit A |
This was followed in April by a distant but definite velvet scoter, which you can read about
here.
August weighed in with a fine
wood sandpiper, while 2
spotted redshanks nearly slipped through the net one September evening, but were sorted out the following morning. Final patch tick of the year involved this
fine pair and a friendly push in the right direction from a loyal slave!
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| galley geese |
Aside from the patch ticks, there was a good haul of decent migrants at Galley this year,including
yellow wagtail, at least 3
wrynecks, 2
red-backed shrikes,
red-breasted flycatcher and
yellow-browed warblers. The seawatching was red-hot at times, with big numbers of
big shears and a fantastic
fea's day too!
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| yellow fever |
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| fat neck |
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| Shrike-tastic! |
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| who ate all the flies? |
In other news, I managed to twitch a hefty four (count 'em) Irish ticks, I think -
black duck,
gull-billed tern,
mongolian plover and
serin:
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| Dack Blucks |
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oooof - bird of the year I think
|
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| Mizen Serin - lovely! |
Bring on 2014 I say! Happy New Year (List!)
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