south west at last!

The first decent south-westerly blow for ages this morning so headed up to Galley early to see if there were any skuas moving. Not much to start with apart from manxies, but things eventually picked up with 10 puffins, 2 dunlin and an arctic tern for the year (101). Otherwise, could only manage a couple of bonxies and 16 fly-by great northern divers, 14 of which were in sparkling summer plumage. Shame none had white bills though!

galley swifts

Two swifts over Kilkeran this morning were new for the year (98).

all doved up

Twitched all the way to Shite Lane in the van this morning as I was too bunged up with a snot-tastic head cold to walk that far. Failed to see the 2 reported spotted flycatchers, however, my incompetence was rewarded when the flycatcher finders returned to the scene of their crime only to turn up a turtle dove, which flew into a sycamore. I pointed myself towards the very tree and as I approached, sneezing all the while, out flew the dove, straight onto the year list - result! Not quite annual at Galley, well they probably are, but my catching up with them isn't, so a good one (97).

redpoll over

A flyover redpoll was as good as it got this morning - ho hum (96).

Sunny stroll

A grand evening for a stroll down to Shite Lane. Nothing much doing in the bushes but did pick up ringed plover for the year on the beach. Back at the house, my local informant informed me of a flock of whimbrel heading south along Long Strand, containing a smaller wader - 5 minutes later there it was, booting over - knot (95). A tricky one to get at wader-deprived Galley! But why are all the waders heading south?