doves

Gave Galley a good going over this am, but with a pretty stiff easterly blowing, it was pretty hard work! Managed to dig out three year ticks though, with house martin, sand martin and a fine brace of collared doves (scarce here) for my efforts (83). As well as these kwality prizes, a few chiffchaffs, willow warblers and a blackcap were knocking about Shite Lane, while a wheatear was on the top lane.

dove from above

Hoopoe invasion

The last few days have seen unprecedented numbers of hoopoes being reported all along the south coast of Ireland, from Wexford to Kerry, with many sites having multiple birds. Being stuck inland supposedly working while having to put out many of these reports on @corkbirdnews was doing my head in, as the one site that was still blank was Galley. Knowing there weren't likely to be any other birders covering it (underwatched in spring, innit), I cracked and headed home early. By 3.45 I was thrashing the patch, trying hard to think like a hoopoe.

An hour and a half later, with just a handful of wheatears and chiffchaffs, and a single black redstart to show for my efforts I was getting edgy. News of another two hoopoes 3 miles away in Ardfield was really galling, and after shouting aloud "there has to be one here", finally one flew up in front of me - Huzzah!

"You ain't seen me, roight?

After snapping a few proof of life pics, I hurried on to check the last few possible spots where a second bird could be hiding but no luck. Still, one hoopoe is plenty to be going on with, so I went back to try for more shots.

"What are you looking at?"

Eventually left him to it, and headed home. My first one here since 2004, when me & "Old Spoons" found one each in the spring. Corking birds!

A few more photos from Ross

Had another hour with the camera at Ross on Saturday. The state of tide & the light were quite different from the previous week, but I managed to find plenty to snap at.

Here are the "best" efforts...

Black-headed gull

Male teal

I feel like Jono!

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!