for crex sake

News of a calling corncrake on Galley Head on Wednesday evening was very exciting - after a time extension deal was struck for minecraft enthusiasts, I was allowed to drag them out to hear it. Forgot how loud they can be! This was my first at Galley, and in Ireland, but "heard only" patch tickage was the only option due to the habitat. Would be great if it hangs on!

Earlier that evening we'd done some more twitching, this time to see a striped hawkmoth, which was trapped the previous evening on the cliffs just east of Galley Head. A proper classy moth, and rare too, with only about 67 previous records.

Striped Hawkmoth

What a cracker!

barney and me

Got word of 2 barnacle geese just off patch this lunchtime (thanks KW!) so obviously had to try and get 'em from within the patch boundary. Luckily Old Spoons was at my gaff at the time so we headed off eagerly to see what we could see.  The birds were on a flooded field between Rathbarry and Red Strand, but unfortunately were invisible below a small ridge from the nearest spot on the patch.

Luckily a willing volunteer did the decent thing and it wasn't long before the two barnacle geese decided they'd like to see how things looked from above the flooded field - hey presto, there they were zooming over the ridge, straight onto my patch list - happy days! Discovered later that they were a Cork tick too - double bonus!

Any geese are mega at Galley - I've only seen brent goose on 3 occasions in 10 years, and otherwise I've only seen egyptian goose (potential 1st Irish!!) and ruddy shelduck (which isn't technically a goose, but hey its close enough). So far I've resisted ticking either on my patch list, but handy to have in reserve.

I nipped back late pm and managed to get a shot of them in the gathering gloom, thusly:

patch tickage baby yeah!

Maybe winter isn't quite so bad after all!

a new wader for the patch

Sunny calm mornings have been fairly scarce here of late, so it's been a few days since I checked the lake. However it was worth a look as I noticed a wee wader running about on the mud. A wee zap of zoom and hey presto - a wood sandpiper! Patch gold and a full fat patch tick! Galley doesn't have much in the way of wader habitat, so such things are pretty scarce around here. Delighted to get one at last! A common sandpiper was also skulking around, for comparison purposes (123 for year).