Wonderful Things

Written 19/4/10

There are many wonderful things in the world. Choughs are definitely one of them. Skulking Savi's Warblers definitely aren't!

Written 20/4/10

I don't really need to write much more, do I? Went early to Marazion, did not Tick Savi's. Did hear the bloody thing reeling away for 5 whole minutes from [and I took a note] 10:24 to 10:29. So much for 'only active dawn and dusk', its 'only active when you can't see me - ha ha!'. I'm not actually as bitter as that sounds. I could, if I was doing a Yearlist, Yeartick it, as I heard the song. [I think that's somewhat odd - which is why when I did my Devon Yearlist last year it was full sight ID only - and much grief that caused...]. I claim a moral victory over that pesky warbler, and much preferred finally getting around to tarting my way to Lizard Point and seeing those fabulous Choughs. [[And that Carrion Crow ;) ]] Oh they were wonderful. I've seen Choughs at a distance in Spain and in captivity, but not flying up close and personal like they were.

Something that has bugged me for some time, and even more so in the last year or so, is the question of when the RSPB is going to get off its behind and reintroduce them to south Devon? It struck me just how similar the Lizard is to the South Hams; the cliffs are less than half the height but that's pretty much it. [This is to be expected, of course, they being built of the same rocks*] In other words perfect habitat for Choughs. I've heard some stuff about them wanting 'natural re-establishment', but there's a lot of cornwall and indeed Plymouth to get past, and if its so viable, why couldn't Cirls have 'naturally re-established' themselves in cornwall? Ok, I'll leave this [for another time].

Seawatching off the Lizard [much more fun than staring at reeds] produced a couple of nice Balearics, 27 Manxies, a few auks, a single Common Scoter and a scattering of the usuals. Still no skuas... Marazion had 2 noisy Comm Sands, a very smart s/pl Greenshank [also noisy], Sedge, Cetti's, Reed, Willow, and Chiff flavoured warblers all showing well at one point or another. An LRP was present, and I was going over to see it when the Savi's intervened [I suppose that might count as a dip too? ;) ]. And there were adorable ducklings [being eyed by Grey Herons...] too, all together now... "Awwwwww..."

Writing this today, I'm hearing about Bee-eaters and Whiskered Terns down that way, and thinking 'Huh...'. If I was just on holly-day, I reckon I'd have been straight back down there - maybe an afternoon chasing Bee-eater followed by an evening's Savi-stakeout? Sounds like fun. But I'm not on holiday and so I have to be much more careful with the vast amount of money all this petrol's costing me. :(

Speaking of - you noticed how much it is now? £1.23+ a litre? How much is crude oil going for? About $70-80 a barrel. Think about it. Why is petrol more expensive now than when crude was $140 a barrel? Tax has gone up, yes, but by how much? The latest rise was £0.01. Petrol went up from about £1.15 to £1.23. There's only one word for it; profiteering. Who's meant to stop this sort of thing? Why aren't they?

On those oh so happy thoughts, I'm off.

Except for..........

*Rocks! Geology is another interest of mine - its what I went to university to do, what I'd be doing if I weren't so rubbish at taking exams. [[Get over it and get on with it!]] I think rocks are wonderful things - why is the landscape as it is? Look down, billions of years of history are under the feet of every birder.

Anyway - the Lizard, the Eddystone Rock, and Devon south of a line roughly from Hope Cove to Tinsey Head are all part of the same geological unit. And a very interesting unit it is. Sometimes known as the Start-Lizard Complex, it is the remains of a dead ocean. Less dramatically and more properly a section of obducted oceanic crust dating to the PreCambrian [probably, although you can't be certain]. The deepest rocks are exposed on the Lizard - the famous serpentine is metamorphosed igneous rock from the crust proper - with overlying schists [metamorphosed seabed sediments] also on the Lizard and both other outcrops. There's a lot to go on about here, about how the rocks were formed, what happened to them to get them how they are and where they are, and why you can't accurately date them.

Cliff notes version; a long time ago [in the Devonian period] there was an ocean to what is now south of what is now the British Isles [complicated? This is the very simplified version...] - north Devon northwards was land - sandy desert - south of that was warm shallow sea [think the Caribbean off the Sahara with plenty of volcanoes and you're not far wrong]. The ocean was subducted [thus the volcanoes] under the 'British' continent until [in the Carboniferous period] the continent to the ocean's south collided with it, forming a mountain range [think the Himalayas]. Continental collisions are never as clean as the animations you see on documentaries - in this case a chunk of the ocean floor was pushed up and smunched into the 'British' continent [a similar thing formed Cyprus, incidentally]. Being buried in a mountain chain, the rocks were altered by heat and pressure [more the latter, unless they were too close to the granite which intruded into the area at the time - later to be Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor, Land's End, and Scilly etc.] which meant any aging attempt by radioactive decay was rendered inaccurate as it only shows the last time the 'clocks' were reset. Hundreds of millions of years later, they've been exposed, and as they are harder than the surrounding rocks, they last longer and so we have two bits sticking out into the Channel and a reef with a lighthouse.

This is not the only time this sort of thing has happened to what has become the British Isles - draw a line southwest from the coast south of Berwick-on-Tweed, through the Solway firth, passing north of the Isle of Man, to the mouth of the river Shannon. This is the Iapetus Suture; cross a dead ocean with a step. Much 'cleaner' - you can see the effect on a map, though the geology is buried. There are others.

I'm going to stop wittering on about rocks now, you can wake up..... but it might happen again. So be careful, and never read this blog while driving or operating machinery.

;)