Apologies For The Delay

Backward Birding would like to apologise for the delay on this blog, apparently there were the wrong kind of leaves on the keyboard...

;)

Ahem.

It's been terrible, I've been writing posts in my head but then forgetting to actually write something when I've been sat here tootling about online. I'm getting old..

Local news first; 3 juvenile Blackbirds being shown how to eat apple on the shed roof by their Dad this week. Yes, it is apparently harder than it looks, they have to learn which side to peck at. I kid ye not ::Snigger:: Sparrows under next door's eaves are working at Brood No. 1 - no loud cheeping yet. On Friday there were at least 41 Large Red Damselflies - a mix of exuviae and tenerals - at Tessier; I spent a merry hour watching them. Encouraged by this, I went over to Stover, but saw 1 male Hairy Hawker and absolutely no other odonata. Hmm. Weather didn't help, mind. On Tuesday a Cuckoo showed very well at Mamhead, as did 3 Tree Pipits. Finally on the local front, today I headed early to Hope's Nose, hoping that the overnight showers would have dumped some migrants.

In a radical break from tradition, I scored! A stunning male Whinchat was hanging around the South Side, munching insects and looking gorgeous. There may have been more than one present, as what looked like a female flew past me later on. Even better, as I was heading down towards Sandy Point I heard a familiar call and a male Yellow Wagtail flew up past me! Patch Tick! From his low altitude I think he'd been hanging around, rather than being a straight fly-over, but I couldn't find him again. A female Wheatear put in an appearance, 3 Whimbrel were on the rocks and a party of 6 Manxies went by southwards.

On Thursday I had some fun and went to zumerzet. I'm going to be annoying and not say where I went, how many wheres I went to, or anything. This is so that I can say what I saw, as there are breeding and potentially breeding species involved. Lets start with the odonata. Holy shit they were everywhere! Ridiculously early, there were 9 species on the wing.... You'd expect Hairy and Large Red, maybe a few Azure and Blue-tailed, but the hordes of 4-spotted Chasers? The Red-eyed? The frickin' Variables?? I had, of course, decided not to take the camera - too early in the year, lugging it and the Big Scope was a pain in the shoulder, etc. etc... The mix of hot sun and brisk wind meant huge numbers of damselflies were collected in sheltered areas, oh the shots even I could have gotten.... Never mind, eh?

On to the birds. 4 Bitterns seen, including a pair having a tousle. Wow. Males booming in daylight, which is always fun - especially when you've seen said bird fly into the reedbed he's booming from. :) Male and female Marsh Harriers making with the nest-building. 30+ Hobbies, some very close, a Peregrine and 5 Sprawks, plus oodles of Buzzards. 5 Cuckoos, including a fly-past by two. A snazzy summer plumaged Great White Egret nice and close on the deck, plus [another?] in flight. Bearded Tits in zumerzet at last! I don't keep a zumerzet list, but its always a pleasure to actually find them. 8 species of warblers, including a pleasingly high number of Cetti's. Broods of young Gadwall, Mallard and GC Grebe were as cute as you'd expect. [[Yes, stripy-headed baby grebes are cute.]] Last but oh so definitely not least, a bird I did not expect, was not looking for, but instead stumbled across after being distracted by Robin-strokers*... A Nightingale. Only the fourth one I've seen, it didn't sing [unsurprisingly], but I didn't mind.

Hasn't April been fun?

[[*I have a lot of time for them. Unless I'm having a very bad day I'll stop and chat about why that's a Buzzard, how to tell Little from Great White in flight, what I think is hiding in that bush, where Willow Warblers go for the winter, or whatever.]]

[[[Also, is it not written; "Blessed are those who are nice to the dudes, for the Goddess of Birding shall smile upon them, and they shall dip less often"]]]

PYL: 114