More dirty twitching at Galley

Hot news today of a barred warbler loitering in Dirk - big bird, small place and all that - "piece of piss" I thought! Gave it a while late morning but no luck in the fog, however a return visit late pm in the sunshine was inspired, as it showed briefly in a sunny buckthorn bush before retreating again. Full Fat Patch Tick! Result! (126). One day I'll get a nice showy one here tho!

In other news, while I was watching the barred, de langer turned up a whinchat at Long Strand, which was duly notched onto the "from the house" list - bonus! Had a cracking male in the spring so it wasn't new for the year, but they've been pretty scarce in the last few years! South-east winds tonight - who knows what will be out there tomorrow!

Galley gets a woodchat

Cracker (124)! Only me second on Galley, but the only one twitched with Batman & Spiderman in tow!

Shetland photo essay

Birding Sumburgh Head

News of the Siberian Blue Robin on Foula sinks in

Little Bunting - two of these was the best we could find

A good pie was hard to find this year - a worrying development

Isabelline Shrike - one of the birds of the trip!

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.