Coot Club

Limited birding opportunities today so there was massive excitement this morning when I scanned the lake and found this...

A coot, honest

It doesn't get any better than that! Well, it didn't for me today anyway.

local birding

Been slogging Galley on a pretty much daily basis as time allows but apart from a brief richard's pipit and my 3rd Galley yellow-browed warbler of the autumn at Shite Lane last weekend, its been pretty quiet of late.

Did manage to catch up with some just off-patch rares this week though, in the form of a juvenile american golden plover

That's it asleep at the back, honest!

and a juvenile spoonbill at Muckross this pm. Which was nice.

Old spoons yesterday

"I'm just going to check this garden for American Redstart..."

I read this account of the historic day in Galley Head birding lore last night when both a philadeplphia vireo and an american redstart were present in Dirk and afterwards dreamt of finding rare american passerines in Dirk. One day....

Hard to believe it was 30 years ago!