bonus glauc

Dodged out between deluges of rain to scope the lake for storm-flung vagrants and was quite surprised to see a soggy looking glaucous gull having a bath (75). On closer inspection, it may have been oiled on the breast I think, as it looks dirty on the awesome record shot!

Soggy glauc - bonus!

White-wingers are never guaranteed at Galley - I'd expect to get one or other in a year, but getting both is trickier. Will probably have to wait till later in the winter for an Iceland moving through - fingers crossed!

long tail larging it

Scanning for the green-winged teal from the patio this morning, I was rather surprised to see this!

Yes indeedy, a female long-tailed duck no less, and a full fat patch tick! One that has occurred on patch in days of yore but not very often. Long-tailed ducks used to be reasonably regular at certain sites in east Cork but seem to have become a fair bit scarcer in recent years. This is only my second for the county, and possibly Ireland, as I can't recall seeing any elsewhere, the tart that I am!

Anyway, it was a most welcome addition to the patch list, now standing at 193. Good early bonus for the year too! The male green-winged teal remains on the lake also.

January so far...

January at Galley has been quite good so far! I've been doing the footit challenge, with a target of 70 species based on the last 3 January totals. Wasn't very optimistic I'd get very near it, but as things have turned out, the patio has been most productive, with the vast majority of my 69 species seen from here - indeed probably 60 out of the 69 have been from the patio (or elsewhere in the garden) - pretty good going! Might have to keep a patio list for 2013 if this keeps up!

Most of the 69 species have been fairly typical for January, with the wintering whimbrel in Dirk probably the best of it. However 2 gadwall on the lake on 13th were a good bonus, while the male green-winged teal on 14th and today was better again! Only my second at Galley, with the first showing up late in 2005 and remaining into 2006.

Today the green-winged teal was quite close but I still could only manage this amazeballs bad record shot, despite having 5 cameras out on the table at one point! Know your limits!

Er, its the one on the right! (I think!)

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...