99, baby...

It's the day after the equinox, the Sunny Side of the year is here - so naturally it's been misty all frickin' day long...

Hmm, misty morning? Right, down to the Nose, 'cos you never [THIS PUN HAS BEEN REMOVED FOR REASONS OF PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH].

Ahem.

A Blackcap was singing, up in a Very Rich Person's garden on IMD - a lingering german or returning local [so to speak]? While the mist was rolling over the Nose, giving the top and north side a chilly dank feel, on the sheltered south side it was positively balmy :) TCCT have hacked out a fair chunk of scrub but have left the main part of the South Side intact [so far..] which is a boon for the scores of migrating passerines who take shelter there. The Top Dell has had a slight trim, and you can see the tower again, but that also seems to be it [I sincerely hope]. I gave them both a good going-over and was at last rewarded with Chiffchaffs! A couple even started singing! Woo and indeed hoo. Better yet, the first one I laid eyes on looked horribly good for a tristis - and as it called like one I guess it was. :D I would hope that I'm not so useless a birder [[Stop laughing..]] to miss one of these little chaps knocking about my Patch all winter, so I suspect it's moving through from somewhere else. It was certainly feeding well - all the Chiffs were putting on a good display of flycatching and insect-picking.

Also of note was a singing male Linnet - becoming a scarce bird on my Patch, especially in summer - and a Grey Seal swimming south past the Nose and being mobbed by every gull in sight whenever it surfaced [Don't know why - I wouldn't have thought seals would bother with gulls, and it's not like they can climb up to their nests, is it?]. In the Ilsham Valley, the first Bluebells are up and the riot of flowers is well and truly going. :) Blackcap sightings in the Garden continue, though the Chaffinch numbers seem to have dropped back to the one or two you'd normally expect.

[[Finally, seeing as nobody's bothered, I'll tell; the Hen Harrier at West Sedgemoor in January.]]

PYL: 99