Er, Yes...

Suffering a slight lack of the muse.

 

 

 

Aren't Dippers brilliant, though?

Be Seeing You...

Waiting For The BeeGees [It Makes Sense In Context?]

Weekend started with a wander seeking previously-missed migrants, and I found three of them.

 

 

Also a couple of passing Swallows and my first Sedge Warbler of the year.

 

 

Yes, I am being obscure for a reason.

Much more fun on Sunday, when I decided to get three days' worth of trips done in one.

 

As we had three days' worth of weather, I think it was reasonable.

I started off on a hillside on the edge of Dartmoor - which I am not naming - where in sunshine I was led round and round by a handful of Pearl-bordered Fritillaries. I got a few nice pictures, but the sort of lovely underwing photo you see on the feeds of better 'togs eluded me. 

First Whitethroat of the year and a Tree Pipit made themselves known, and Speckled Wood and Dark-edged Bee-fly - along with a hoverfly I will ID at some point - also joined the 'let's wind the human up' party.

I didn't stay long as I had a trip to Emsworthy planned and wanted to get parked within a mile of the place if at all possible...

[Sunny Sunday?!? Ho ho ho]

This became complicated close to, as I ran into the back of a charity tractor run. 18 of them.

More power to their driveshafts and so on, but things were slightly delayed.

 

And yet somehow I was pulling into the main car park quite easily..?!?

[Suspect I'd got the Teacher's spot, having just missed him]

 

And then the Sun went away and the rain said "Hiya humans!"

But there were Redstarts. LOTS of Redstarts.

 

And two Cuckoos. Heard but not seen, though.

 

I set up an ambush and waited.

 

 

 

And waited and waited.

[Two hours enough?]

 

 

 

Bugger.

 

I went a'looking.

 

Eventually, a Cuckoo flew past me. Camera said "ha ha"

 

Cuckoo flew over me. Camera said "ha ha"

 

I said various Ancient Devonian Swear-words {which I will not translate} and the usual Curses upon the programmer of the autofocus.

 

The Cuckoo landed in a Hawthorn. In sight.

Back to me.

 

 

I used that tried and tested tactic, the Spiral Dance.

[[You go across not towards the bird - moving towards anything will spook it, so don't - and gradually get closer in a great big spiral. Simple.]]

It worked. I was shocked, I can tell you.

Then the Wheatear appeared and I even got a photo.

Time for venue three.

 

There have been not one but two vagrant herons knocking about Slapton Ley in recent days. Purple and Blue-crowned Night [yes, BLUE-crowned. That thing is royal blue, not black.]. Ok, both rather hard to see species, but hey, what's a few hours standing about in the cold wind between mad birders, right?

 

 

Though I did not spend all the time until dusk standing in the wind on Slapton Bridge. I had a seawatch [What?? SW wind blowing. Worth a shot] and saw a handful of Gannets and Guillemots offshore, with three Red-throated Divers on the sea. [I even hit one. Just.]

The Purple Heron, it turns out, did a bunk on Friday [photo from Saturday clearly a Grey flying away...], but the Night Heron was showing, though only after dark.

[[Who's playing that guitar?]]

Well, dusk anyway.

A few other herons flew over, including ten Cattle Egret and a Great White Egret. [Older birders mused on how times and bird-rareness change]

 

Mr Two Hoopoes [yep, that's your name now] picked up a metre-long Pike, and my camera did too, shocking all involved. [[See 🐛 ;This is BlueSky, as the Scum-suckin' evil ones gaggle won't put a butterfly emoji on here for some strange reason..??😏 ]] 

Eight o'clock came and went, and the handful of deranged mad crazy er, dedicated birders thinned a touch, but eventually, at 2020, it was suddenly there.

 

Well, sort of. As I had suspected, it was on the overhung Willows on the Graveyard Pool and very hard to see.

 

As anyone who's looked at my pictures can attest.

 

[[Yes, it IS in all of them]]

After sitting as a cute little ball of feathers for a bit, it flew to the channel south of the bridge and showed quite wonderfully.

 

Other people got better photos, go look for them if you want to actually see some of it.

It was a very happy - even though I had to get up at aaaaaarrrrggggh o'clock the next morning - Backward Birder who went his way home singing a slightly edited Sunday Night Heron. [Yes, this is where the BeeGees come in, probably calling their solicitors right now...]

I advise you to not think too hard about what the lyrics might be, if you at all value your sanity...

Mistle Thrushes still hanging around at work [closed site, sorry], and my first moths for the year are waiting to be unleashed upon the unwary.. Heh heh

What will the proper-length* weekend bring?

Beeeeeeeee-eeeeeater?

 

{I can dream}

 

 

 

Be Seeing You...

[[*You know I'm right]]

Twice Upon A Time...

You see what I did there?

Ahem.

 

Anyways, so to continue this ketchup, we get to the main event [well, the one I've been requested to please get a hurry up and blog about]

 

 

I like shrikes.

[I'm way too young to know how I feel about Ike, btw]

But they are verrrry thin on [or usually above] the ground in Glorious Devon in recent years.

Last year I spent a lot of time up on t'Moor, at various past locations, looking in vain for a lovely [unless you're a Coal Tit] Great Grey Shrike.

 

So when one popped up at Bellever, I was there as soon as possible.

 

Ok, it was a bit overcast and a lot windy, but the sun was forecast to come out, and the wind was the same as it had been showing in.

And to be honest, even if it was raining sideways, I'd have still been tempted.

 

Did I mention I like shrikes and it'd been a while?

Things got off to a good start when I arrived at the car park to the south of the site to find Murphys [2] having just arrived themselves.

 

Things got even better when we'd hardly got any distance on our way; a bird got up from a section of stone wall ahead.

Hmm, that's a raptor, not a shrike, not a Kestrel, oh itsa Merlin!!!!

 

A female, and she hared off - as they usually do - far too quick for me to even get to my camera.

Very good omen, though.

😄

 

 

Skylarks sang and it tried to be sunny, as we traced the wall line up to the plantation edge, then followed the edge [on the inside, folks, no bird-disturbing here] for not that far down onto the lee side of the ridge before

"There it is!" 

Great Grey Shrike, sat on top of one of the scattered self-seeded conifers [see? they have uses]. We then watched the bird sit, scan, and pounce on various small and unlucky things, relocating frequently as they do.

It even gave us a hover; they do it like Kingfishers do, if you've ever seen one.

 

Other birders arrived after positive news was put out [lightweights 😛] and despite it trying to rain on us, we even got a few other birds [Crossbill, Siskin, and so on].

 

 

How the day would have carried on is a matter of debate, as news broke of a flock - yes a flock - of Blue-headed Wagtails at South Huish Marsh.

 

Despite not having had lunch yet, it was decided that some things cannot be allowed to pass.

 

 

It was not, I must stress [officer] wacky races; I was very good. It was just a little tense when I got stuck behind a whole convoy of verrrry slow assorted lorries and wound up getting there 20 mins after Team Murphy [all I did was stop for go-go juice on account of being on fumes...]

 

But despite an even stronger wind, there were [eventually] EIGHT of the brightly-coloured little darlings there. And a Water Pipit. And a flock of ten Cattle Egrets flew in. And a Water Rail was tarting about in the open. And my first Swallows and Sand Martin of the year were flying about. 

It was all rather good.

Next day I went looking for Little Ringed Plovers and hoping for an Osprey. I got neither, though I did see a Barnacle Goose which was definitely wild, and some nice butterflies.

Cut to Mothers' Day, where the Traditional Nicpic was held at Laughter Tor in blazing sunshine and Skylarks. A Common Lizard! turned up right next to us, but the shrike didn't fly over. A pity as I would have shamelessly bribed it with rations if it had. 

[[What? Like any of you would do differently]]

We then reach Wheatears at Last, and after that, finding a quite ridiculous 32 Sandpipers Purple on the Real Living Coast [and I photo'd Every. Single. One. to prove it, too] the day after dropping a kite overflying Town. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.

My first Willow Warblers, Redstarts, Tree Pipit and Pied Flycatcher of the year all came on last Sunday during a two-site 'I'm going birding and dam the grockles' kind of thing. [And oh, but there were hordes...]

 

 

And then we come to Monday, when on getting home from work I turn on my phone to a message from The Teacher;

 

'Corn Bunting at Hope's Nose quarry ri-'

 

 

 

 

     there was more but I was already out the door.

 

 

 

 

A call to said finder on getting to the Entrance Bushes resulted in being told 'It's just flown off strongly south' 😱 

After swearing very little and quite quietly, really, and heading down the South Side, I managed to refind it sat on top of the Wryneck Bush. Bunting re-relocates back to where it was, where I join the small but happy twitch watching this streaky little browny grey-ish bird flying about and not sitting close for good pictures, but we didn't care.

 

 

First one for the site since 1994, said MB.

Patch Mega, says I.

 

 

Since then, on consecutive days we have had a very showy Hoopoe at Berry Head, a Night Heron at Slapton [again!], and now a Purple Heron there, too.

 

 

What's tomorrow?!?

Be Seeing You...

Interjection

Interrupting my slow progress on part two to say that yesterday - what? You're not expecting promptness on here, are you? - I got the shock news that a Corn Bunting had been found at the Nose, and by none other than The Teacher; on one of those few and far-between, ever-so-short holidays they get 😛 and so out in the week.

Needless to say, I was over there with bins, notebook, and camera before you could say "It's just flown off"

 

OH Come ON.......

 

 

 

 

It had gone south, so I went down the South Side, scanning every bush, tree, and sticking-up-thing I could.

 

There it is!

 

Right on top of the Wryneck Bush [another Teacher find].

 

 

Reader, I almost died.

[[I didn't, as you can tell by reading this, but it was close]]

The bird then flew back to the First and Last Bushes, where said Teacher, along with a small but glad twitch of MB and The Murphys [sounds like either a northern soul band or a short-lived 80's cartoon series.!] waited. We admired the bird as it flew around and generally changed position a lot, but pictures were taken and it was good.

 

 

Corn Bunting, if you don't know and can't be bothered to duckduckgo [[because f- gaggle]], is a large but very grey-brown bunting, quite unlike the festively-coloured Cirl and Reed Buntings, or Yellowhammer. Its song is likened to jangling keys, and it's easiest seen at the car park of Maiden Castle in Dorset [seriously, you often don't even need to get out of your car...].

There are a very few in north Cornwall, but zog all in between.

The last one at the Nose was in November 1994.

 

 

Needless to say, that's a Patch Tick.

 

Woo.

Pics on here; Butterflyplace

Better pics here; Steph Murphy's Butterflyplace

Video here; Teacher's Butterflyplace

That may be too many hyperlinks for a blog....

 

 

 

There were also Bluebells, for icing.

Anyways, I am very happy.

And I am getting on with it. And yes, the shrike is in the next one.

 

 

 

Be Seeing You...

Once Upon A Time...

That ketchup post is finally here.

I'm not going to go into all the twelve visits to the Nose I made last month, because - aside from the last - there was a running theme of 'No Wheatear....::sniff::'

First report was a trip out West. 

A Wood Duck has been frequenting the duck pond at Saltram - where all the birds are actually wild [go figure, if you've seen it; right by the gift shop!] - along with a male Red-crested Pochard, with evident designs on the more-or-less resident female.

 

Wood Duck?!? Well, it is my opinion that not every Wood Duck is an escape. If Mandarin can get to Iceland, and Woodies can get to the Azores - and they can - then genuine vagrants can get here. A pair in Cornwall recently being most recent.

This Wood Duck was reportedly very wary - for a duck on a pond - and I wanted to have a look. I've seen an interesting Wood Duck in Devon before - a male, so automatically written-off by all and sundry - and as I said, I wanted to see how wild-acting this bird really was.

 

 

Of course, the one day there was no sign of her.....

 

 

 

Ok, turns out two days, as The Teacher tried the day after me and dipped her as well.

 

 

But other things to see.

The male and female RCP showed wonderfully, at least 36 Mandarin did too, and oh yes, a winter plumage Curlew Sandpiper eventually turned up at a nice range down on Blaxton Meadow. [Plumage Tick!] 

Pics of all on BlueSky, along with a colour-ringed Curlew, Med Gulls, and the naughty Ring-necked Parakeets.

I - being Out West already - went on to South Huish, where eventually the Water Pipit showed riiiight at the back of the Big Puddle.

 

It being a bit blowy, I gave the sea some attention, seeing a lone male Common Scoter and eventually a Red-throated Diver out there. Passage of one Gannet and one Kittiwake was a bit underwhelming, enlivened briefly by 8 more Common Scoter.. Until off to the North, a skua hove into view! Pom! It turned about and headed off NW, but too late to avoid me. 😁

But that was it.

Next trip was a two-header also.

Started in a wood by the edge of Dartmoor, where a small woodpecker showed nicely though not as well as for some other birders [drat], and on nearby heath a male Dartford Warbler steadfastly would not be photo'd, either...

After taking care of Important Things, Powderham Park contained at least 28 Cattle Egret and - on I think the fourth attempt - an Egyptian Goose! Woo.

Powderham Bend saw me sit myself down for a slightly late lunch and hope for an Osprey on the rising tide. 

Nope.

5 Red-breasted Merganser were on the water, and 47+ Turnstone and 66+ Dunlin were trying to stay out of it by the yacht club.

The weekend after, I headed up onto t'Moor with the Folks and their 'orrible slobbery dog [he's a sweetie, really, and very friendly. Very very friendly]

We did the walk I'd scouted the month before - up to White Tor - and all the sunshine was most appreciated. Lack of big flock of Golden Plover this time and no Wheatears, of course.

That's all for this time. We have more to come, including Proper Filthy Twitching With Friends!

Be Seeing You...

At Last. At Last. At Last.

Triple title as at last yesterday I found three Wheatears at Hope's Nose!!

 

 

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

 

 

Ahem.

 

 

So I shall be recommencing blogging.

 

If I can remember what I've been doing...?!?

Pictures of pretty Wheatears [and lots of other things] on That Butterfly Place

Because google still blow goats.

Be Seeing You...

Insert Post Here .3

No, this isn't a post.  Yet.

 

But it will be. This is a placeholder.

Why? Well, it's like this; until I get a Patch Wheatear, I can't post about anything else.

 

I am in fact just about right now to head out for yet another go. So we shall see.

 

 

 

EDIT: I failed. And I failed again yesterday.

 

Bugger.

EDITED AGAIN:

 

Still all failure.

 

Double bugger.

 

 

 

If you want an idea what I've been up to, go to bluesky.

 

[Link's in that post of the 6th down there  \/ ]

                                                                   \/

                                                                   \/

Be Seeing You...