mostly off-patch "record shots"

Purchased a secondhand 400mm lens from the dreaded ebay a couple of weeks ago, and have been playing about with it a bit since it arrived. Slowly getting the hang of things, although still a lot to learn. Really enjoying the instant response from the camera, after becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of pace of the bridge camera. The following are the "best" results so far, heavily sharpened natch...

Robin in the garden

Black-tailed Godwit at Ross

Greenshank at Ross

Black-headed Gull at Ross

Dunlin at Ross

Redshank at Ross

Ruffing it

Imagine my surprise today whilst scanning around the lake with the scope for stock dove and fieldfare and other patch gank that i still need for the year, when I noticed these fellas feeding in amongst the oiks...

patch gold!

Yes, indeedy, a fine brace of ruff, which is my first record at Galley for ages - at least five years I think - will need to unearth the old spreadsheets. A welcome sight for sure!

Pintail ya bas!

The first and last time I claimed pintail from the patch, back in 2009, there was huge outcry and an eventual steward's enquiry, (which was decided in my favour, obviously). So imagine my surprise when I spotted this beauty swim through the scopeview on the lake this very afternoon (127)...

er, its the duck on the right...

Looking even more wondrous in this pic

 So there ya go - only my second record for Galley, after the 5 at Red Strand that were clearly visible from a well-selected spot on the patch approximately 2.5km away. This one was a (from the) garden tick too - Bonus!

Er, the female Goldeneye is still here too...

the twitching

Well, the autumn fizzled out without really ever getting started hereabouts! Haven't really been out and apart from a well-timed whooper swan from the jax, and a goldeneye on the lake, there's been nothing in the way of year tick action either (126).

So it was with great excitement and anticipation that I found myself on the shores of Lough Gill, County Kerry yesterday for a spot of dirty twitching. And the target? Ireland's 4th ever american coot, no less!

An american coot yesterday (not the bird on the right)

What. A. Bird. It was great! No really! I'd nearly say Awesome but thats frowned upon these days.

A good bit smaller than european coot, of which there were at least 13, so picking it out took a lot of skill and dedication. I noted the smaller shield,  more curved bill, and white undertails, which were surprisingly hard to see when the bird was actively diving, which it was a good bit. With a bit of time, all the key salient features could be seen, and all are visible in the above shot. I would say record shot but I'm too modest.

The male lesser scaup was nice too, but I'd run out of film by the time I got on it.

A grand afternoon out in the Kingdom altogether!

Mid-October

Blimey - a month since I've been on here! Apart from a rather bird-packed few days on Shetland, I've seen very little. Not that I haven't been out slogging round Galley most days, its just there's been very little to see. Thus far into October I've managed siskin and redpoll for the year at Galley. A bit pants. Until today.

With the wind finally in the south-east, I was quietly optimistic that there'd be a bit more around today. And so it proved, with a fine yellow-browed warbler gracing Shite Lane - its not a proper autumn without one of these on the patch! Dirk held very little, and I was struggling to find anything out on the head when two pipits flew over, one calling like a meadow pipit and one calling like a tree pipit (121). I was rather pleased with this. I reckon that was probably only about my 6th tree pipit in 10 years here - tricky enough, and easily less regular than YBW.

That was my lot for the day though, however, with the south-east wind due to pick up, and rain overnight I'm hoping there'll be a proper fall tomorrow! We shall see!

What I saw on my holidays