Seawatching! III - 'Always Read The Small Print' OR 'Fire Your Agents'

Kidding!

No seawatching nonsense this time, worry not.

Instead this weekend, with it actually not raining and almost being warm on occasion, I took a couple of wanders inland. Land, land, it seems so odd to not be looking at water...

Anyways, on Saturday it was Mamhead on the Haldon Ridge, which was nice and everything looked all green and healthy. Well, what hadn't been blown away, that is. Birds were reassuringly quiet, with a Tripit being upstaged only by a Willow Warbler rapidly acquiring a billful of insects - good that it still had surviving young to feed, though the lateness would suggest they come after a previous failure.

Yesterday, Fernworthy was also very green - the plants sheltered from the wind were clearly enjoying themselves. We kept away from the reservoir - the north shore is verging on the submerged and you really need wellies now if not waders - instead wandering some of the vast tracts of the plantation. I've burbled on before about Fernworthy and it's trees - this is not some dreary monoculture by any measure, with plenty of deciduous near the water and an impressive array of needle jobs, especially in the valleys. And Fernworthy has valleys, oh yes, with some proper full-size conifers such as you won't see outside of serious collections.

Birdwise, there was a surprise - not one Crossbill! I can't remember the last time I didn't even hear one there.. Odd. We were treated to lovely views of an adult Green Woodpecker feeding a juvenile and Coal Tits and Chaffinches in particular seem to have done well. Briefly popping outside the enclosure, a hawker dragonfly sp. was probably a Common, but in the brisk wind it stayed too low and skulky in gorse to get a good look at it. At a more sheltered spot back inside, Wall, Meadow Brown and a lovely Ringlet butterflies were more obliging. Well, the Ringlet was great but the Walls kept doing that annoying sitting edge-on routine..

We also found a fair few deer slots. Not all Roe, either, with a very fresh set measuring a hefty 7cm in length. While very crisp, the slots weren't super-fresh though - as a certain LBD didn't go utterly ballistic [She really likes deer - they smell good and run much faster than sheep...] - probably earlier in the morning. Changing tack to plants again, the Foxgloves are really at their peak up there, filling every open space, but the Bilberries are well behind. The grasses also are flowering for all their worth, making for a gorgeous display of rippling silver in the wind.

Ah, the Joy of the Moor.

Right then, back to work. Happy happy times for us all....