Showers and Surprises

I had Something To Do on Friday, but I couldn't resist being slightly naughty and taking a scenic route to get there. A very scenic route..

Started by pulling up at Preston sea front, to see if I could be extremely naughty and scope the Eider off Broadsands / Berry Head from there [thus making them a very bent-ruled Patch Year Tick]. I failed, but it was well worth the go, as the male Common Scoter was really close in and showing cripplingly well.. :D Two Slavonian Grebes were off Hollicombe, and a Black-necked Grebe and Mrs. Long-tailed Duck were off Paignton. A couple of Turnstones were a Patch Year Tick, and the sight of no less than 52 Oyks huddled on the cliff from the high tide was a pleasing one [the number, not so much the huddling].

Then I went on to Berry Head, where I could find no Blackstarts. I did find three rather smug-looking Eider, close in near the blockhouse. I also found [Famous Devon Birder], who had almost suffered clicker combustion due to vast numbers of auks streaming by! I caught the tail end of this monumental passage, which was still impressive, despite being a tiny fraction of what went before [about 5800 in an hour, I think it was...]. Unfortunately, I also caught a whole heap of rain. I was not prepared for this, due to the weather forecast lying through it's shiny white teeth [Grr..]. I got extremely soggy, but didn't let that stop me taking a quick half hour or so at the sea before I had to go and behave.

Later, as I was finally drying out, I saw that the male Brambling was still about. :)

This morning, with some half-decent weather [overnight, at least] I gave Hope's Nose a go. I didn't get long before the sun started shining and passage died right away, though I did see some interesting birds and it was definitely worth the trip. First thing was a passage of auks - more than 90% Razorbills and not connected to the Ore Stone colony - an early rate of about 800/hour [on timed counts] died off quite quickly though. Star bird came in from Lyme Bay, however, [a little south of east] and turned north - a Pom Skua! :D A light morph bird, by the darkness of the underwing it was probably an adult, but it was too far out for spoons to show if it had them [{Famous Devon Birder} had had two spooned w/pl adults past Berry the day before, it could be this was one of them staying in the area?]. It came in high, but eventually dropped low to the sea as it motored on up the coast out of sight. Brilliant.

Other notable birds included a Redshank and a Knot past south [the latter with a small group of Razorbills?!?], 3 Red-throated and a Great Northern Diver [the GND on the sea, the RTs past south] and two dark-bellied Brent Geese which flew south 5 minutes before the Pom arrived. Less good was a Hughes helicopter, which flushed the 260+ Guillemot colony on the Ore Stone by flying incredibly low - less than 50' - seemingly filming the inshore lifeboat. Nice place to do it, chaps....

In the afternoon it was a stroll around Yarner with the folks. As I've burbled on before, I really like Yarner. As we arrived we passed [Devon Birder], who was leaving to look for the SEOs reported at Warren Point [ouch]. He said it was pretty quiet and he hadn't seen a single woodpecker... At that point I was quite glad I'm only after Patch Year Ticks this year, I have to say.

We headed for the hide first, stopping a little short to watch a big tit band [including Marsh Tits and a Nuthatch, with a quickly-vanishing GSW {you know it had to happen - Irishman's law}]. Just as we were moving on I noticed a group of small finches hanging onto catkins in a smallish Birch on the down-slope side of the track... Siskin! I called my parents [towed on by the ever-eager Tilly] back, then looked more closely at the Siskin and realised to my delight that some of them were Redpoll! :D They were very cool, happy to feed away while we watched them, I tried to explain the differences between Lesser, Mealy, Coue's and Hornemann's [these were all Lesser, of course], and Tilly tried to wrap her extendo-lead around as many bits of Holly as she could find... We eventually left the 5 Siskin and 4 Redpoll still happily shredding catkins and went on.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly wandering around the tracks, extracting Tilbury from various bits of greenery [I think there were a few deer around, as she was even more nutty than usual], and seeing a few more tit bands, plus Woodpigs and so on. Near where we saw the Bullfinches last time I heard a few calling, but we didn't get another show. A short while later we did get a flyover, though; one I really wasn't expecting. Flying straight towards us, just over the canopy, was a falcon shaped like a Peregrine but much too small and the wrong colours - a frickin' male Merlin!! Right over us and on towards Haytor Vale it went - wow! Last thing to report was another visit to the hide on the way back - lots of activity, with Blue, Great, Coal, Marsh and Long-tailed Tits in that order of numbers [interesting, as usually Coal are the most numerous]. No Nuthatches, let alone GSWs, but the tits put on quite a show by themselves.

Brambling continues on the shed roof with his Chaffinch friends, but two more days without a single winter thrush.

I'm still grinning about those Redpoll. [And the Merlin, and the Pom, and the drake Scoter.. But I've not seen Redpoll that well for years, especially not so close and so relaxed.]

PYL: 63