Confessional

 It's mid May and we've been lax and hard at it. It's been a good spring inland with some top records including a group of four ring ouzels. and a cuckoo. Add this to the heaps of common stuff and improbably we are on 75 species, which is known as 99.1%. In mid May! We've had garden warbler and spotted flycatcher just off patch while applying our doubtable talents to do some proper bird surveys on a local nature reserve, but they don't count. Closing in!

Bumbling along

 Having not posted anything since February, thought it about time to enlightening you all on the joys of patch listing at Longhaven; I can assure it won't take long.

There's been no highlights.  The list of new birds over the last two months is quite short, comprising 15 species in all and includes delights such as dunnock, pied wag, cormorant and oyc  Only three species were not 100% ers, these being stock dove, collared dove and bullfinch that are not quite (but almost) annual.

But having said that, at the end of April, the total stands at 78 species and 61.74% of the yearly total, which is marginally above the ten year average... who'd have thought it.

It's May tomorrow, say no more.

Happy days

Bushveld 

News from Nimmo

 Yes indeedy, for it is he. Well, he has coughed up a percentage total and I've been able to fill in the blanks by utilising his blog at least.

As with many celebrities these days, Derek is far too busy to actually bother his @rse getting his hands dirty by actually blogging himself - tis far easier to just let a minion get on with it. Thusly, a potted history of wot Derek Nimmo has actually seen this year at Wanstead Flats....

January - 25 posts mostly blawin' on about wondrous travels elsewhere, namely Brazil, the Balkans, Fife and Mexico. #AlwaysOnHoliday

February - 12 posts - still Mexico, Fife again, the Peleponnese, Castilla-la-Mancha, and Morocco.

March - 13 posts - still Morocco, The States, the Peak District, Texel, Wanstead, wait, what? Wanstead?!?... Yes indeedy, and I quote...

"Approaching the end of February I'd managed one visit to Wanstead Flats in early January. That had taken me to 35 species, and my commute to the office through Bush Wood had increased that to 44. 44! Oh dear. I finally got my act in gear on the 25th, going for a walk before work in the Park and the Old Sewage Works. This took me to 58, and then last weekend a bit of sky-watching added both Buzzard and Red Kite between bouts of gardening. A quick visit to the Old Sewage works earlier this week added Kingfisher and Water Rail, and a Chiffchaff on the way to work yesterday took me to 63. A veneer of respectability. A thin veneer"

April - 13 posts - The Algarve, Jersey, AI and even Wanstead again! wowzers! April highlights have included ring-necked parakeets, a dubious, silent woodlark (whatever that really was!), yellow wagtails, a sand martin, a nightingale, ring ouzel, and a lesser whitethroat. A pithy synopsis of the year so far in overall Wanstead terms direct from the horse's mouth is that "the patch has had the greatest first 4 months of the year in recorded history, albeit that numbers of everything are low/singles" - Nimmo has obviously missed a fair bit seeing as how he was absent for the first 10 weeks of the year but is quietly confident that he'll be able to catch up later in the year.

So in percentage terms, he's in first place on a whopping 82.61% whilst still needing such sitters as tawny owl, grey wagtail and cetti's warbler. That can't be right shurely? Looks like we is gonna need an official enquiry and a recount....

A dubious parrot woodlark, yesterday (Pic: D Nimmo)

Few, migrants!

With Seppy blawin' on about how epic the spring has been hereabouts, I thought I'd best add a little counterbalance from a few short kilometres down the coast.

While Galley (and indeed, seemingly every other bit of the Irish south coast) had Hoopoes and other such spring goodies dropping from the skies with apparent abandon, Squince seemed to be the only place immune to the influx. Despite countless hours scouring every piece of perfect Hoopoe-devoid-Hoopoe-habitat on patch, there was nothing doing. I did find a fine Hoopoe not far off patch at Myross Woods -- which was, errr, nice.

A Hoopoe not far off-patch at Myross Woods. Balls!

The days of traipsing finally yielded a very-hard-earned Black Redstart, but that was it on the migrant front apart from the routine arrival of the usual suspects, with Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Swallow, House Martin,  Sand Martin, Sarnie Tern, Gropper and Sedgie to keep the tally ticking over. No Wheatears yet though.

The only other birds of note in April were a Great Crested Grebe on the lake and a Marsh Harrier (a full-fat patch tick no less) high over the reedy bit at the back of the lake, being mobbed by hoodies before it immediately fecked off roughly in the direction of Skibbereen.

So... an utterly unremarkable spring here when all said and done, one which sees Seppy (after his Galley Spring Mig Bonanza) breathing down my neck for second spot on the podium.

Fux sake!

south-east again

Yes indeedy, with the bank holiday weekend just around the corner, the wind did the decent thing and swung back south-east  yesterday, with a lump of rain overnight promising the chance of some more migs. Out pretty early considering, and I'd barely closed the back door when I could hear a grasshopper warbler from somewhere over the road - it sang again briefly as I hurried out the gate to try and pin it down but I didn't hear it again. Ah well. Less than annual here, and one I thought I'd probably missed with all the fine weather last week.

Out round Galley then and there were a few bits moving but all Irish stuff, no sign of anything from further afield. Reasonable numbers of willow warblers and chiffchaffs plus a blackcap and better again, my first whitethroat of the year!

a snipe, yesterday

But the best had to wait till the second slog round after lunch, when, bemoaning the fact that there were no yellow wags in the ideal cow field, suddenly I heard one calling as it went over - it flew around for several minutes before eventually deciding to land in the ideal cow field and allowing decent views. Yellow wagtails are definately less than annual here and easily missed when they do occur, so to get one on the deck was a real bonus!

a yellow wagtail in the ideal cow field, yesterday

So thats the craic now! The good spring continues....

Spring Sprong

 Yes indeedy, this has easily been my best spring evah at Galley and now that it appears to be calming down, I've finally got time to write it up!

Things were kicked off by me missing hawfinch and turtle dove, both found by Old Spoons up to his tricks again. However, I responded by bumping into two (count 'em) hoopoes feeding away on Marsh Lane, which was nice!

Two hoopoes, er, the other day

Exhibit B

I nearly went to work the next day but thankfully common sense prevailed, and I just hung about on patch instead, finding another hoopoe and seeing two more, while waiting for Spoonsy to come up with the goods. Which he duly did in the form of a female western subalpine warbler in his very own garden - skillz! Luckily I was quickly on site to validate the record thusly...

A western subalpine warbler a few days before yesterday

Top stuff! A day sweating on a hillside dreading "good news" followed, however I was back on patch by late afternoon in time to bump into a trio of hoopoes flying into Shite Lane - were these new birds? hard to tell but they could well have been! A fine fly-by shelduck and a cracking male yellowhammer and a merlin were also welcome additions for the year list!

But the biggie had to wait until the following day! A smattering of overnight rain promised new arrivals and I'd got no further than the end of my road when I heard a snippet of this from the massive bush down by the beach...

Song 2

So that was pretty much the next couple of hours trying to see the fecker but eventually myself and Old Spoons (#Validated) were able to get some views of most of the nightingale as it continued to sing sporadically from deep cover - amayzing to get one on patch, and an irish tick too! This is also about the only bird I've ever seen in this bush!

A few other bits of lesser gank have also been accumulated over the last week or so, including redpoll, house martin, dunlin, common sandpaper, 2 pintail (patch gold again!), tufted duck, sedge warbler and even kestrel, which was nice! The stats show that reaching 100 species by 11/4 is also the earliest I've ever reached that milestone - ooooof!

All to play for then!

Phew, migrants!

 Yes indeedy, things is starting to happen hereabouts, as migrants begin to get through. Still no ears here but a sandwich tern off the beach and a willow warbler in me garden on wednesday were the first official harbingers of spring. Old Spoons turned up a black redstart just off patch yesterday evening, which I managed to glean from the Majik Patio (TM), not new for the year but a sign that things is picking up. Spoonsy struck again mid-morning with a fine brambling on the top lane, which I had to twitch at high speed in case it got flushed - you know what photographers are like these days! Sure enuff, he booted it off minutes after I'd arrived!! #FrameFilling

Not to be (totally) outdone, I managed to dig out a new black redstart further down the lane, but neither of us could locate any pink and white flouncy efforts before the rain came on, even though they is seemingly everywhere on the south coast today. Ah well, maybe I'll find one tomorrow, if its not too wet!

All to play for!

Sunday nite update: still nowt better than black redstart at Galley but did manage to twitch two local hoopoes over le weekend, which was nice!

Cracking male black redstart yesterday

A hoopoe just off patch yesterday