Another Boring Post

About where I went and what I saw.....

One day I will get back to amusingly deranged rants and other interesting things, promise!

Saturday did not see me zooming up to Chew after the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, as I had work going on. Arg. I might have been able to twitch it straight from, but considering the amount of daylight left, I didn't think it really viable. I know, what's the rule?

Instead I stayed on my poor underwatched Patch, and resolved to at the very least bash the Harbour gulls senseless. This turned out to be a problem, as some helpful person had covered their pontoon in fireworks, and there wasn't a single larid present... To make matters worse, someone with a very loud PA who thought he was the reincarnation of Freddy Mercury was rending the air. Oh, my poor ears.......

Even right out on Haldon Pier it was intolerably loud, but there were at least some nice birds on the Real Living Coast to distract me. The Purple Sandpipers are back for the winter - I counted 5 hiding among the 'granite' chunks; there will be more - and an impressive 11 Turnstone, too, plus a couple of Rockits. Scanning the Bay brought a Slavonian Grebe off Livermead, at least 3 Great-crested, and a distant Black-necked. A Grey Wagtail in town was by now expected and did not disappoint, though the call was hard to hear over the cacophany of 'music' going on. I don't know what sort of event it was, I'd heard nothing about it [or I wouldn't have been there..]. I really ought to stop going on about it.

Also on Saturday, our first Blackcap of the winter - a female.

Sunday dawned, well sort of bright and cheerful. I'd decided to go for the Sharp-tail if it was there [trying to be good and so on...] but there would be no burning petrol on spec. Finding news proved problematic. A certain telephone news service recycled all of the previous day's news and didn't even mention the mega-rarity in their area, despite a report being out [which I missed, due to the 3-post rule and Black Redstarts being so noteworthy]. Last time I call them. Eventually, a begging post on a Certain Online Forum About Birds resulted in someone taking pity on me. May they find the next first for Britain.

One Wacky Race later...

Distant but distinctive, I think that's the best way to put it. The Big Scope with its 75x did its duty, indeed several birders near me abandoned theirs to look through mine. [I'm not smug, really I'm not. Satisfied. Pleased. Ok, maybe a little bit too happy. Its just nice to have my choice of a straight-through with a big eyepiece pay off. :) ] The intervening Willow trees and reeds did make things tricky, as did the STS's habit of wandering out of sight. Also, in the first hour or so, the Lapwings were very nervy and kept flushing, taking the small waders with them. The STS could be easily picked in flight - it looked very Ruff-y - which was nice and helped refinding it quickly. On the ground, when the sun shone [albeit briefly] it was as gorgeous as you'd expect a juvenile to be.

Also present were at least 12 Snipe, a smart Little Stint*, and up to 34 Dunlin. Off to one side, 2 Bewick's Swans were nice, and the Spotted Sand over the road showed twice while I was there. I couldn't find the Dowitchers, despite scanning all the mud visible from the length of the bridge. Oh well. Nor did I see any Ring-billed Gulls among the Commons and LBBs ::Shrugs::

As the Sharp had by this point decided to hide for a while, I moved on to make a gradual trip back. First stop being Catcott Lows, where there were 2 more Bewick's! I spent an hour counting ducks [A sample; 57 Pintail, 36 Shoveler, ~500 Wigeon] and Lapwings [~1800] and watching flocks of Starlings assembling. The biggest being ~3500. Alas, the mist/haze prevented any long-range views of any display. I did get a Snipe display, when a passing Buzzard put up 81 of them. A lone Oystercatcher dropped in, and there were groups of winter thrushes knocking about, too. It was very very nice there, with low sunlight catching the birds, and the Lapwing coming very close to the hide. Naturally, I hadn't taken the camera this time...

On then to Greylake, hoping for a SEO or 5. [Why not 'the' place? Big detour needed, and time pressing]] I got there a touch later then I would have liked, with everyone else just leaving and reporting not much activity, raptor-wise, but I pressed on regardless. It was pretty much a bust, there were Snipe and Wigeon, and a Woodcock flew over me, but no sign of any owls or anything else on the reserve. I nipped over the road and scanned that side, and in the distance there was an eared owl which looked to be hunting, but I couldn't get anything on it. Drat. But worth a try.

[[*EDIT: As has been later proved, there was a Semi-palmated Sandpiper present up to the 20th, and I saw it and assumed it was the Little Stint, which, by the way, I remain sure there was. I saw, in the better light when I arrived, a clear juv. LS. I assumed the grey thing later on [after the waders had flushed repeatedly and when the light had become so annoying] was the same bird. It wasn't. Oh well.]]