Last week, I successfully twitched the Pied Wheatear, and enjoyed the experience greatly. When I nailed the American Wigeon, I felt a great deal of satisfaction [["Take that, you thcwewy duck!"... Ahem.]]. However, neither experience lived up to the utter joy that came my way today, here on my humble Patch.
Having Something To Do in Paignton, I decided to take the scenic route and give my [somewhat underwatched, due to the deadly combo of work and shameless twitching] Patch a good bashing in the process. What could have been a half hour [plus traffic and parking] in the car became 5 hours on foot. My feet are unamused. The plan was to hit the coast at the Nose and follow the more sheltered side down to the south end of the Patch - with the wind more or less northerly, the rest would be blown out.
The fun started at the Palace, with what sounded very like a Firecrest calling among a big band of Goldcrests, Blue, Great, Coal, and Long-tailed Tits. I say 'sounded very like' because the cacophony of calls made it hard to be sure. After 20 minutes stood in the road dodging builder's lorries, they moved off without me being certain either way. Drat.
Reaching Hopes Nose, I started into the Top Dell with extra care, but it was very dead. Odd, this, as with shelter from the wind and even some sunshine, it should have had a few Robins and Wrens at least.. I turned to the South Side, but aside from Magpies it too was dead. 5 Skylarks came in/off and flew inland, a few finches passed high overhead, but that was it.
Then it came around the little headland between the Nose and Thatcher Point. A little lower than my level, it seemed to be heading on by, but to my delight it turned in and then came up right towards me, following the gully that comes down from the Top Dell and clearly looking about. Indeed I saw it look right at me, those blazing yellow eyes standing out in the black mask... Holy shit, a Short-eared Owl!!!
It came up over me, turned and circled over the South Side, then gained more height and ranged further over the Lower Slope, before climbing even more and moving inland. I was ecstatic, I was over the frickin' moon - a SEO on my Patch!! Then it came back, again it roved over the South Side and to my joy it suddenly plonked down! Quite high up on the South Side, in the bracken.. Uh-oh... Sure enough it was soon disturbed, but was able to find a more secluded spot further down slope. How about that? SEO roosting on my Patch! :D I wonder where it's headed? I also wonder where it came from - straight in/off migrant looking for a rest stop, or maybe came in at Berry and kept going looking for cover, or maybe even the bird flushed from Slapton today?
After that, there's not a huge amount to tell. Mostly the usuals in usual numbers, though counts of 23 Turnstones at Preston and 69 Oyks at Hollicombe [thanks to the high tide] were pretty good. A female Blackcap was new at the Nose [though which way she was migrating is debatable] and there was a steady if light trickle of overhead migrants; Mipits and common finches. The Harbour gulls were naughty and flushed before I could go through them [they acted like a raptor had gone over, but I couldn't see anything]. When some came back, they were all Herrings [Moorhen still present] - the lack of even a single GBB was unusual. There were the expected hordes of boats out on the sunny weekend, so little going on in the Bay - Shags and Cormorants cowering close in off Hollicombe - and there was no sign of any Scoter off the Nose earlier. BHG numbers in the northern half of the Bay are over 80, mostly picking through the weed washed up by the recent weather, but I couldn't find any Meds among them.
PYL: 83%
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