Rain

Enough of that posting every day nonsense, it just spoils you.. ;)

These last two days I've been birding in the rain. What? You think I'd cower inside 'til it goes away? Fah! Fah, I say.

Ahem.

I've also had diligent jobseeking to perform, which does tend to get in the way of the birding [with or without rain]. Though not as much as jobhaving, of course. Tuesday morning I had to be in town, so took the chance to give the Harbour and Bay bits of the Patch a good going-over. The tide being well out meant that there were gulls aplenty, quaking in fear of the bashing they would get... I didn't even find a frickin' LBB. Drat. I did find 2 Little Egrets and 3 Grey Herons on the rocks around Corbyn's Head - a very nice tally indeed. Even more surprising was a Raven, picking at something amidst the weed; we get them overhead a lot, but rarely see them land [except on Hope's Nose, but that's another story..]. The afternoon was spent on the phone, so neatly scuppering my plan to re-find the Waxwings. Double drat.

Wednesday saw Patch-bashing around more Things To Be Done. In the morning the overdue Waxwing check drew the expected blank, though a male and female Blackcap were a nice find. Off Blackball, 54 GC Grebe, at least 6 RT Diver and a probable BT Diver, plus 8 Razorbill and 2 Kittiwake made getting rather soggy worth it. In the afternoon I gave the Harbour yet another go, still no gull joy, but I did at last find some Purple Sands! :D With a good swell sending spray flying, at least 11 of the little darlings were looking gorgeous as the sun came out.. ::Sigh::

Today I left the Patch for the first time this year and had a meander around the Exe. Bowling Green had the female Smew, plus Snipe, Avocets, Pintail, Shoveler, Pochard, Lapwing, plenty of Wigeon etc. A Brambling was with the Chaffs and Dunnocks in the lane. It was pretty good, but I didn't tarry too long, as I had other fish to fry.

Exminster was the main aim. I arrived and climbed the bridge for a viewpoint to look for the group of White-fronts [it's been an age since I last saw them in Devon]. They were way off the the north near the Exminster footbridge, with [Devon Birder] looking at them. The rain fell, it was a bit nippy, we had a chat about Smew and the Dark Art of seawatching, while the White-fronts resolutely stayed with the Canadas [[including one with a white head, btw]] far, far away. Then [Devon Birder] arrived and asked if we'd seen the Hen Harrier and wasn't it amazing. [[Yeah, another of those long pauses over with very quickly..]] Triple drat! Apparently said ringtail had been harried by corvids from near the lagoon up to near the M5 bridge; he'd been looking for a reported possible Scaup on the lagoon when it flew through his scope field! Jammy bugger. We went different ways - me in the direction of the canal. Well, you never know, right?

Failing to find the harrier, I had lunch by the Topsham Lock, which gave me a nice view of the south end of the Retreat [albeit into the wind..]. Although there were Avocets feeding, other waders to look at, and a Grey Heron having a spat with a couple of Mute Swans [Mr. Swan took objection to the heron and got pecked for his trouble] I ended up going through the gulls... I found a Common Gull. Woo. On a brighter note, the Spotshank the Terrible Two found the other day put in an appearance; it was lurking in the channel west of the Retreat, where it couldn't be seen from the Topsham side [sneaky thing]. Star bird was a Little Grebe that came right up to and into the lock entrance - so close I was looking right down on it. :)

Then I went down the canal to the lagoon, looking for the other Smew [yes, both still present, as while I was watching the female at Bowling Green, the one I think might be a 1w male was being watched by [Devon Birder] on the canal!] and this possible Scaup. No sign of Smew, but a sleeping duck with a very Scaup-y head shape was on the lagoon.. Hmm, thought I, looking at it. It doesn't look beamy enough for a Scaup, and is very brown on the flanks [wouldn't a 1w female be at least a little mottled by now?], but that head shape is nice. So I wait. And wait. Eventually it moves and is indeed a female Tufty. [[How many drats is that now?]] Time marches on, and I haven't even mentioned all the Wigeon and Lapwing and Blackwits, the Pochard on the lagoon and the Pintail and Shoveler on the marsh.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I've not seen a single winter thrush on my Patch since Tuesday, and no Bramblings either. Not to say they've all gone, of course..

PYL: 55