fisher of kings

Out with the usual 1st of Jan spring in my step this am but didn't get anything particularly unusual. Best of it was a kingfisher,  courtesy of Senor Faulty - saw it a couple of times last week, but a good one for the year - they ain't around every winter! Finished on 42 species for the year.

A fairly vintage year on patch

Although I've so far failed to add any further year ticks in December, overall the 144 species that I've gleaned at Galley in 2013 makes it the second best year total since records began (2004), beaten only by last years monstrous 149. With a whopping five full fat patch ticks, it shapes up pretty well, leaving me just 3 short of the magic 200 barrier! First of the year's patch tickage was this fine female long-tailed duck, back in January.

Exhibit A

This was followed in April by a distant but definite velvet scoter, which you can read about here.

August weighed in with a fine wood sandpiper, while 2 spotted redshanks nearly slipped through the net one September evening, but were sorted out the following morning. Final patch tick of the year involved this fine pair and a friendly push in the right direction from a loyal slave!

galley geese

Aside from the patch ticks, there was a good haul of decent migrants at Galley this year,including yellow wagtail, at least 3 wrynecks, 2 red-backed shrikes, red-breasted flycatcher and yellow-browed warblers. The seawatching was red-hot at times, with big numbers of big shears and a fantastic fea's day too!

yellow fever

fat neck

Shrike-tastic!

who ate all the flies?

In other news, I managed to twitch a hefty four (count 'em) Irish ticks, I think - black duck, gull-billed tern, mongolian plover and  serin:

Dack Blucks

oooof - bird of the year I think

Mizen Serin - lovely!

Bring on 2014 I say! Happy New Year (List!)

christmas globby

News of a glossy ibis only 10 minutes from the in-laws this afternoon was a welcome distraction from the kids and the lego! Didn't have long tho cos had to be back in time to watch Superman The Movie with the kids - tv heaven!

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!

courtmac & timoleague

Took a wee spin to Courtmacsherry this morning to have a sconce at this

Surf Scoter, Courtmacsherry

Unfortunately it was a bit more distant than it had been yesterday, so the shots were correspondingly even poorer than they might have been! Only discovered on checking this evening that my last surf scoter was 10 years ago to the very day, at the same site! Spooky!

On the way home I stopped to check the gulls at Timoleague and found 2 adult yellow-legged gulls in amongst the lessers - here they are in situ...

2 adult YLG with LBBs

and in more detail

Jeepers, I feel like Gavin Haig

C'mon Gav, talk us thru this fella!

Still find these fellas tricky & don't feel confident about them at all. Reckon it must be down to my deprived Scottish upbringing! Kind of getting the hang of adults tho - just need to find one on patch now!