Garden Siskin todayA jolly wheez. PH and BH have instigated a how many species can you see from your garden in a year Orkney bird race ... red rag to a bull. And wanting to get a head start on JB before he calculated the probability of 325 from his spot I raced into action this morning with several, Baldrick-like very cunning plans.
Plan number 1 = scanning over distant Loch of Harray waiting for a flyby, conveniently provided by Long-tailed Ducks for the tick.
Plan number 2 = grill mid distance Loch of Bosquoy until something obvious shows (well it's a fair distance) two drake Shoveler were the business (there may have been ducks as well but they prove a bit tricky at that range).
Plan number 3 = scoot down to the Shunan, locate the Spot Red then leg it back up the hill and get it on the garden list, nice :-)
Plan number 4 = drive round to the far side of Loch of Harray, locate the Scaup flock then attempt to scope from garden on return. Scaup flock found but may as well have been floating cow poo when seen from the garden, Plan 1 will be reinstated on the morrow (with an outside chance of Fulmar).
Also added today were fly through Mepit and Goldfinch and finally got a Moorhen which was skulking around The Shunan. The total so far is 56.
Elsewhere today at least 4 Slavonian Grebes on Loch of Harray, another 6 Shoveler at Brodgar along with 8 or 9 Scaup, 70 Twite (but no Wheater) at Yesnaby and a very smart male Siskin (different bird from the other day) on the feeders at home. But the Chaffinches have gone.
This Niger's nice ....
2 comments:
I submitted 5 species as my anticipated garden year list, being one for choosing the right handicap to play the probabilities by. I've not heard back from Paul saying I can't just choose blackbird, house sparrow, starling, common gull and hoodie, so I reckon I am onto a winner.
Clearly I hadn't understood the handicap system, where are the rules? Are there any rules?
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