A Weekend of Ups and Downs

This being more literal than figurative...

In a radical break with tradition, I've been spending most of this month not going out and about with the Folks - we've only been out twice, and one of those was me talking them into twitching a Cattle Egret then ditching them to go after Big Ugly Gulls [[tut tut]]. So yesterday and today I've been wandering bits of coast path with them. Yesterday we did a chunk between Brixham and Kingswear - nice in the breeze but rather stifling out of it - and today we went off to Golden Cap. Yes, quite a bit of up and down...

The section between Froward Point Battery and Kingswear Castle doesn't look that bad on the map, but there's all manner of tight climbs and a whole heap of big steps. Mum was not amused, I have to say, though I wasn't enjoying the humidity much, either. Its been a long while since we last went that way [something about Pete Goss, if I recall...] and none of us remembered all those steps. On the plus side, it was quite pretty, there are some lovely rich peoples' homes to look at, and I'd forgotten how interesting Froward is. The Inner Point has a well-preserved WWII coastal defence battery [less the 6" guns, alas.. ;) ], if you're into that kind of thing, and gives a very nice view across Start Bay. Its a little out of the way, and tucked back a touch more than I'd like, but the seawatching potential seems to be there - with the choice from the Coastguard Lookout down to the various emplacements giving potential for plenty of different views and heights. For someone looking for somewhere a little different, it might be worth a go.

Stonebarrow to Golden Cap is a traditional walk of ours, now enlivened with Tilly-pwered antics, including tangling the lead around stiles and footbridges*, barking at chickens [Tilly likes chickens...], coobeasties, and distant frolicking spaniels, and eating crab apples [though only 2, as she didn't really like them...]. Having lunch on the Cap, the haze limited the view to Beer Head and the wind was perversely weaker than it was halfway up the slope [mutter mutter]. We did have some liveliness, though as a party of about 30 Swifts came wizzing past east at head height! No, I don't know why they didn't just fly around the side either, we were right near the edge [not that near, but within 15'], but past they came, angling to avoid us. Wow.

[[*Footbridge with gate at one end; she dodges gate and squeezes through fence, down into water, around tree, under bridge and in through other side, then around my Dad's leg. Not bad, huh?]]

Birds on both days were otherwise pretty standard, though Bullfinches flying past today pleased Mum and a showy Green Wood on the Golden Cap undercliff pleased me [he just sat there going "la la la you can't see me!"], as did a Jersey Tiger sat out in the open [?] - albeit again on undercliff, but you'd think a bird might notice?? A hawker spp. gave us a zip-past but evaded my optics and so went unspecified - it was probably a Migrant, based on darkness and location, but I can't be sure.

I feel like I did some climbing today [my legs are threatening legal action], and while I wasn't patrolling my patch [Swift Watch™ is still going, though] or failing to photo Small Red damselflies, I still feel they were two good days.