Garden Listing

I managed an hour or so scrambling through the undergrowth of Uig Wood yesterday being rewarded with four Woodcock, plus there were two Lapwings out in the sheepfield behind the shop. These are the first Lapwings I've ever seen here, doubtless cold-weather migrants fleeing snow-bound areas. This is my 97th bird species for NG3963.

Massively cropped Lapwing - it was a bit of a way away!

There is an area of decomposing wrack at the top of the shore which held a flock of up to 100 Chaffinches at the start of the winter. Most small birds have recently fled, my 20-25 Chaffinches in the garden have reduced to a single male bird. The Siskins and Goldfinches have vanished elsewhere. However, there are a few thrushes eking out a living amongst the rotting piles of weed. Mostly Song Thrushes and Blackbirds, but nice to see a few Redwings in there too. A handful of small birds are also using this food source including Robin, Wren, Pied Wagtail and Rock Pipit. I haven't seen or heard a Dunnock locally for several days, hope they're alright.  

The low-lying hollow that was inundated with seaweed in a recent storm. That's Northern Dock in the foreground.

I've been looking at my NG3963 Species List tonight. Ali has completely run away with the 1000 in a 1KSQ Challenge, he's light-years ahead of the rest of us. I reckon I can make a significant increase to my own flagging tally next time I have a day off. I have a hitlist, y'see... Catching him up is going to be a real task and a half though, plus Tim Hodge is in it this year. Tim is an absolute demon, he's also the guy who knocked me flying out of the Top 20 in the PSL Rankings Table. One to watch (and admire...) is Tim.

Trawling through the usual bunch of blogs and websites this evening, I see that Graeme Lyons blogged about adding his garden to the PSL Locations page. He's currently languishing in last position (though that'll soon change, mark my words!) You can link to his blog here. This got me thinking, should I do likewise and add my garden list to the rankings? 

Took me about quarter of a nanosecond to come to a decision, hell yeah! So here you have it, I've added Uig Hotel Grounds, Skye to the Site Rankings page. Why the hell not? Well, two reasons. Firstly it pushes Graeme even further down the table (haha! It's not often I get one over on the Incredible Lyons Machine!) and secondly, it will encourage me to look closer to home and help break the cycle of endlessly wandering Cuil Road and Uig Woods. My own back garden is mostly a big, fat mystery to me. I did a brief ten minutes sweep netting through the undergrowth last autumn and landed myself four lifers and a moth new to Skye! I'm also less likely to get funny looks from members of the public whilst in my own back garden, though it does back onto the local church, hence Sundays are probably out of the question. Dour bunch of buggers at the best of time, though if I'm looking at 'God's creations'...?

OH! I very almost forgot! I spent a fair whack of today rearranging the woodshed. Had to rebuild some of the pallets, then shift about a thousand tonnes of firewood from one end to the other in readiness for adding this year's split stuff. About two tonnes worth, I reckon. Should be fun... Anyway, apart from two Wood Mouse nests that I discovered in the middle of the wood stacks, I saw a moff! Pretty sure it was an Oak Nycteoline, which would be a damn decent record for Skye (pre-2000 records only) but I didn't have a pot/camera with me, bit oafish I know but there you go. My bad. Hopefully I'll get one in my light trap any night now. 

Hopefully I'll get anything in my light trap any night now...slow start, to say the least! Today's sideways sleet won't help. Spring has yet to arrive up here, regardless of what the calendar says.

I spent most of today with this confounded tune rattling around my head, it's only fair I inflict it onto you too, dear reader. Enjoy! (Mwah-ha-haaa...)