Walkies!

Been bashing the Patch, hoping for Wheatears despite the norty wind blowing the wrong way, but still no joy. Yesterday covered different ground with the first proper Moor day with the Folks in a long while. We went for a wander to Great Links Tor, and very nice it was too. To our surprise the sun actually came out and stayed out, so while the wind was fresh to say the least, once we got out of it [Great Big Lumps of Granite are handy for that] it was very pleasant. Views towards cornwall were obscured by haze, and the wind helped keep a lot of the birds out of sight, though a few Ravens performed very well, and a Kestrel took impressive advantage to hover without flapping. The ground was just nicely soggy - easy on the feet without getting you covered in mud [well, unless you don't pay enough attention.. ;) ].

Saturday was a great big blank bird-wise, but today rescued things with 3 Purple Sands and 6 Turnstones in the sunlight at Haldon Pier [usual comments about counting them among the boulders]. A pretty much entirely s/pl BN Grebe was close off Princess Pier and nothing of note amongst the gulls. Hope's Nose provided some fun with at least 3 Harbour Porpoises, 2 Red-throated Divers [one in full s/pl] and a Guillemot along an edge between clean and dirty water [caused by onshore wave action, not the outfall]. Singing Goldcrests and Long-tailed Tits were lovely, but I still haven't heard let alone seen a Chiffchaff on Patch this year.. :(

Last night I did hear the local Tawny Owl getting vocal - good to know he survived the winter!

:)

PYL: 94