2012 Galley Roundup

Erm, haven't really been on here very much of late. Which is very remiss of me, as 2012 has actually been my best year ever on patch (so far). With a whopping 149 species in the bag (so far), it is unlikely that I will reach these giddy heights again for some time. Although, that's the beauty of patch birding - you just never know what will turn up!

So, what were the highlights of 2012 for Galley then?

The autumn was pretty good but not amayzing - with a haul of two yellow-browed warblers, red-breasted flycatcher and richard's pipit all on patch. Which was nice!

And it was the best spring I've ever had here, by some distance, despite certain ill-researched literature proclaiming that it is never done in spring! The fall on the 1st of May was of a scale I hadn't experienced at Galley before (although still small beer compared to UK east coast falls), but 200 willow warblers, 150 wheatears, 40 blackcaps, 20 sedge warblers and 10 whitethroats, 4 grasshopper warblers, 3 whinchats, 3 cuckoos, 2 redstarts, 2 lesser whitethroats, reed warbler, tree pipit and short-eared owl is not to be sneezed at!! My best moment of the day was walking a hedge with willow warblers flitting everywhere when suddenly, bam! a garden warbler jumped out in front of me! Patch Tick! Patch Bogey nailed! In a day of big winds, it was the showiest bird I saw, which was just as well as its taken me 9 years to get one on patch! Ridiculous!

The seawatching in August was really good too! Massive numbers of Cory's Shearwaters were great to see, plus my fourth fea's petrel here, but best of all was the adult long-tailed skua late one August evening - another long-awaited patch tick and much appreciated!

However, the run away winning moment was seeing the female red-flanked bluetail at Shite Lane on 26th March - what a fantastic bird and all the better for being on patch - amayzing!

Wowzers! What will 2013 bring? Stay tuned to find out!

October Update

Jeepers! October is nearly over! Its been good on patch though of late with three yellow-browed warblers, firecrest and a very approachable red-breasted flycatcher being the key highlights.

I managed a patch tick too, in the form of crossbills - the first bunch flew over unseen a few days ago, leaving me with a tricky patch tick dilemma, as I've no other "heard only" species on the patch list. Luckily I heard some more yesterday and managed to get on them as they went over - nine birds heading south-east. Its been a good autumn for crossbills on the south coast (e.g. 100+ on Cape yesterday!!) so connecting with them was eagerly anticipated!

The patch year record has been demolished this year too, currently standing on 144 after fieldfare today - the previous best was 141 in 2010 and there's still two months to go!! This record breaking score has also had implications for the Patch Challenge, with very little separating the top five, all of whom are over 100% already. However, as things stand I'm just in the lead, and am hoping to consolidate this over the next few weeks! Sure, we'll see how it goes...

birding from the jax

I'm not proud. I'll admit I was totally delighted to get a wigeon on the lake this afternoon (137). Such are the rewards for the dedicated patch worker! After a couple of hours seawatching, hoping for a grey phal but failing (60 sooty shearwaters was pretty good tho), I resorted to scanning the lake for year ticks. Unfortunately it was too windy on the patio, so I had to find a more sheltered spot - the upstairs jax! Perfect!

There was just enough room for the tripod, and by standing on a stool (no pun intended) I could even see most of the hidden corner! Scanning through the gulls, I got on a duck that made me think "wigeon" but before I could confirm that it wasn't one, a real wigeon walked past in the background! Excellent! Less than annual and hard to predict where to find one, this was a huge bonus to the year list! Now only two needed to reach the 100% in the patch challenge, and just 5 short of a new patch year list record - its all to play for!

Another fea's for Galley

A few recent seawatches have produced low numbers of great shearwaters and a few sooty shearwaters, however with the wind looking good for a south-westerly blow I headed out to Galley first thing in the hope of better numbers. I was soon joined by Paul Moore who quickly picked up 3 cory's shearwaters ambling through. A good start! But that was it pretty much for the next two hours. A few sooty shearwaters whizzed by, and the occasional bonxie but not a whole lot else.

Until 9.03 when Paul picked up another Cory's. And then started swearing. A lot. Then he shouted fea's petrel. Two seconds later, it flew into my scope view. And I agreed. And started swearing. And shaking. A lot! Its amayzing the adrenalin rush that you get when you see one. After my first one at Galley a few years ago I had to go home for a lie-down!

Two more cory's shearwaters came through shortly after the fea's, and a nice close great shearwater and then it all died off again. So I went home. For a lie-down!

Just fantastic! The swearing was good too. Tom Mckinney would have been proud!

more seawatching fun

July passed in a blur, with a fair bit of effort put in but little or no reward! However a run of south-westerlies at the start of August surely had to bring more seabirds to the coast?

An early session on the 1st produced 4 great shearwaters, 14 sooty shearwaters, 1 pomarine skua and 72 puffins, while another morning watch on the 2nd scored 2 more great shearwaters, a couple of large shears and 17 sooties. With conditions looking good that afternoon I headed out again and on arrival was rooted to the spot for the next 6 hours! After a heavy shower, Cory's shearwaters began streaming steadily past in small groups at a range of distances from shore. They were coming by every minute or so. Now and again, great shearwaters would also come through, either singly or mixed in with groups of Cory's. My two clickers were put to good use as over the next few hours numbers crept up, until It was almost dark, but they were still passing. The tally finished up on 1,000+ Cory's shearwaters, 32 great shearwaters, 52 sooty shearwaters, 5 pomarine skuas, 7 bonxies, 3 arctic skuas & 40 puffins.

Back for more at first light on the 3rd. The lighthouse had been on when I'd left the night before, and was still on when I arrived, but with the wind still blowing out of the south-west I had to go back! The first bird through the scope was a Cory's - had they been passing all night? By the end of the session, I'd racked up another 310 Cory's shearwaters, 32 great shearwaters, 61 sooty shearwaters, 4 pomarine skuas and 7 bonxies.

If anything, conditions looked better by the afternoon, with heavy showers passing through and the wind increasing a little. As luck would have it, I was able to escape both work & the kids again and flaked back up. Numbers of Cory's were lower by now, but there was a higher proportion of great shears in the mix, meaning you really had to concentrate to separate the two at times - great practice! Another four hours passed quickly, with 154 Cory's shearwaters, 58 great shearwaters and 32 sooty shearwaters in the bag. However, the best was left till last when I finally scored a long-tailed skua at Galley! Skua numbers had been good that afternoon, with 10 pomarine skuas, 5 bonxies and an arctic skua through, so when KC called up another arctic, I thought I'd liven things up by saying "it looks a bit delicate", as I was still trying to find it in the scope. Five seconds after seeing it, we were both repeating "it looks a bit delicate", and then the penny dropped! Fantastic to finally see one off Galley, and it was only my second for Cork, after a juv on Cape way back in September '91. This was a cracking adult, albeit without the tail streamers, but awesome none the less!

Rainbow's end produced Long-tailed Skua shortly after 

I was quite relieved when the wind finally swung away from south-west that night. Looking back, it was an amayzing spell of seawatching, and easily my highest tally of Cory's in one day. Wonder if that's seawatching over for the year? Hope not - must go check Windfinder...