I couldn’t get out birding at all today, and Ged dropped a bombshell mid-morning with a series of text messages – he’d found a flock of 35 White-browed Woodswallows at Shelley Road Park, complete with a Masked Woodswallow! TWO year ticks for me, and especially galling since Louis and I spent the afternoon in that area yesterday, precisely with woodswallows in mind. That’s the way the cookie crumbles in this brutal sport of competitive year-listing. Hoping to spend some time over there early tomorrow morning.

I kept an eye on the sky most of the day just in case, and resolved to carry binoculars around with me for the next week or two to be prepared for the event that a woodswallow flock goes over.  A brief skywatch from home produced a Black Kite, flying high south, looking like it was migrating.

With no year ticks today, my year list remained on 296 species. I spent 12 minutes birding, walked 0 km and drove 0 km. My chronological year list is here.