Not that I have a patio but following an all day stomp around ‘my’ Blacksod patch on Saturday I spent Sunday around the house, it has to be said more in than out! However following a tweet from Col of Galley Birding fame about 2 Gadwall on his Galley patch with the hashtag of #patiostrikesagain encouraged me to set up the ‘scope on the front doorstep and scan the patch. Result! After thirty minutes of scanning my #patchbirding score had increased by 3 points with a male Wigeon on the ‘duck puddle’, 2 distant white blobs which turned out to be a pair of Mute Swans and a fly-by Woodpigeon. Fantastic; definitely #lazybirding!
This morning I quickly scanned the patch again from the ‘patio’, particularly the ‘duck puddle’, and now 6 Teal had joined the male Wigeon - nothing new so I made my way to the office. Then during the morning another tweet from Col informed us that he had found a male Green-winged Teal on his patch - more #patiobirding! Congratulations tweets were then sent to him from his #irishminileague challengers and one, from Niall K, predicted that the next one would turn up on my ‘duck puddle’ - I smirked!
Lunchtime arrived. I headed for home remembering NKs prediction, so as I pulled up outside the house I grabbed the ‘scope and scanned the ‘duck puddle’ – 9 Teal, and, WOW one has an obvious white vertical stripe - a fantastic male Green-winged Teal - 6 points in the bag and #patchgold!
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| Long distance birding - can you see the white stripe? |
Thanks Col - I’ll certainly be spending a little more time #patiobirding!
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