A local twitch

It took me all of 5 minutes this morning to drive from my house to the scene of much excitement yesterday. Sadly though, I was heading off patch - 2.7km off patch to be precise. As light slowly began to increase, 10 of us started scouring the shore of Castlefreke lake for the american bittern that was found there yesterday. Eventually it actually got light. And then even more eventually someone spotted its head sticking up over the near bank. And then everyone got great views as it walked out into full view before heading back towards the ditch - a fabulous bird!

It was such a good bird that we took the kids to see it this afternoon. Sadly it wasn't quite as showy but we did see it. The kids yoyo'd from boredom to hyper-excitement when it showed and then back to boredom when it disappeared. Then they looked at a pheasant. Which was nice. Then we went home.

Crests

The last week has seen good numbers of firecrests all along the south coast, so I was pleased to bump into a couple in the willows down Marsh Lane. I even managed to jam a reasonable shot of one...

Fluke shot!

A couple of goldcrests were even more obliging although they were actually too close to follow with the 400mm lens! Managed a couple of shots that were almost in focus...

Don't zoom in!

Coot Club

Limited birding opportunities today so there was massive excitement this morning when I scanned the lake and found this...

A coot, honest

It doesn't get any better than that! Well, it didn't for me today anyway.

local birding

Been slogging Galley on a pretty much daily basis as time allows but apart from a brief richard's pipit and my 3rd Galley yellow-browed warbler of the autumn at Shite Lane last weekend, its been pretty quiet of late.

Did manage to catch up with some just off-patch rares this week though, in the form of a juvenile american golden plover

That's it asleep at the back, honest!

and a juvenile spoonbill at Muckross this pm. Which was nice.

Old spoons yesterday

"I'm just going to check this garden for American Redstart..."

I read this account of the historic day in Galley Head birding lore last night when both a philadeplphia vireo and an american redstart were present in Dirk and afterwards dreamt of finding rare american passerines in Dirk. One day....

Hard to believe it was 30 years ago!