Palace patch, on a role

I didn't expect too much after last weekend but birding is full of surprises. I'd confirmed Collared Dove on Wednesday, a bird I'd seen from the car a few weeks ago when I may have been a few metres outside the patch boundary, patch tick. What other #patchgold could be waiting?

The tide was rising and a small wader with a slightly odd call scooted by, proved to be just a small, short billed Dunlin on follow up.

Standard Dunlin

All fairly uneventful until I got to the gardens. A Song Thrush, and something else dived into a garden. Eventually it showed but partly obscured by a leaf, it really did look like a Dunnock (more #patchgold). It flew, and into the next garden which is tricky to watch (house gets in the way). As I was getting an angle on the Sycamores a Phyllosc flicked in the Rosa rugosa nearby, ah! Yellow-browed, nice. A very flightly YbW, whizzed about between the gardens and at one point flew off inland before turning round and coming back. I couldn't locate the Dunnock, darn!

Checked the other gardens for not much and then got back to the car, mmm, a gang of small waders up the end of the beach, maybe that small wader was not just a Dunlin and I'd been muddled. I drove up and looked from the cliff. A Jack Snipe wandered into the scope view, well that was a surprise!

Jack Snipe

Don't think I've ever seen one so well.

Then a stop at Barony Mill to look for more passerines, what's that? A Dunnock. That will do very nicely.

No photos of the Dunnock but a smart Starling and a subtle hybrid crow...

Starling

Quite a subtle hybrid but black centres to those edge mantle feathers and some dark body feathers part hidden by the wings.

Grey Heron - four on the shore