Distant Cormorants

Spent a lot of time looking at these lately...

Ok, so its that time of year again, when its a good thing to be working in a factory as the Christmas Shutdown lets you do some actual birding. Oh, and all that other stuff as well. Sigh.

Before that, I had a bit of holiday that had to be taken so on Wednesday I decided to get up on the Moor come hell or high winds. It has been far far far too long, and the forecast seemed vaguely promising of, well, sogginess underfoot, but dropping winds and cloud cover, so maybe Fieldcraft vs Fieldfares might be doable?

Before that, though, I dropped into Oddicombe to look for The Bird. A 2w sinensis of the form haigi kept my interest for a while [so that's 2 different ones, as the Sunday one was an adult], and a few Kitts were bombing about, but no sign of the yank. Onward. It seemed quite promising as I headed up through Newton, with even bits of blue sky about, but when I parked up at Holne quarry, I noticed the trees seemed a bit bendier, and there was this stuff zipping along sideways... oh, that'd be rain then...

Sideways precipitation or not, I wasn't about to go back yet - maybe the Mardle would be sheltered, and more importantly maybe this would keep all the bods from disturbing the thrushes! One out of two, as after I got over Holne Ridge [which was interesting, and required a good lean into the wind!] I found the gale howling [seriously, the wind was making the 'howling through the rigging' noise in the trees] down the Mardle. Rats. The reduced visibility made for some interesting birding, as both you and the birds got eyes on each other at the same range, leading to some close if brief encounters. As well as odd small groups of thrushes, I met 2 Snipe, one of which decided towering into the wind was a bad idea and dropped down in the open. It stretched its neck up and looked at me as if to say "You'd better not make me fly into that again..".

Eventually I found a sheltered spot and made myself inconspicuous. Time passed. A smart male Bullfinch was pretty before being blown off. Then a few Fieldfares and Redwing arrived. Bingo.

Viewing winter thrushes at close binocular range may not be the greatest achievement in birding, but it requires enough to make it rewarding when you can do it. Plus they're a lot prettier than distant views credit. This time they spent a fair bit of time on the ground [can't think why], where there was enough cover to be irritating, but there was always at least one lookout to look at. Finally they moved on - right towards me! A score of birds skimming the hillside and passing at head height; one Fieldfare had to alter course to miss me - it gave me a reproachful 'Chuck!' as it passed - wow. The long climb into the wind, getting blown into a big muddy morass.. totally worth it :) Final totals; 20+ Fieldfare and 32+ Redwing, plus a bunch of Blackbirds and something that flew up from behind me, tried to land next to me, realised what I was, went "Erk!" and flew off before I could get good eyes on it. Thrush sp., possibly a 1w Blackbird that was too shocked to make the usual racket.... It made me laugh, anyway. ;)

I headed back via my Mandarin spot - the Dart being full of water and kayakers I figured it was worth a go - but no joy. Then to Oddicombe again, where again no interesting cormorants, but a huge feeding frenzy of at least 1000 gulls and 100 Gannets way out in Lyme Bay. Much closer in, indeed as close as you can get as the tide was right up and the beach has been stripped, a Razorbill was fishing in the surf - right in it! You could see it swimming underwater... Joy, utter joy.

Fast forward to today, and after we finished at work, I went [yes, you guessed it] down to Oddicombe again. This time I bit the bullet and lugged the Big Scope [[I don't want to go whinging on, but I hurt myself again... Frankly, its getting ridiculous. I'm going to complain.]] down, without doing any more damage, so at least proper birding may be on the cards again. Getting back off tangent, there were distant flying Cormorants and Shags. One of the cormorants could have been The Bird. Could. That's it. A good 80 Kittiwake were hanging about out of the wind, and 10 GC Grebes were at least double figures. 2 Razorbills were nice and close, but any displays were curtailed by 2 small children and their dad - or rather by their stones. Not aimed at the birds, I hasten to add! There was still some activity well out, with at least 20 Gannet and a Fulmar, plus assorted gulls - though the huge flock of Wednesday was gone.

And finally... Monday at work - Green Woodpecker! Not bad for staring out the window. Today in the Garden, 6 Greenfinch huddling out of the wind and going after the sunflower seeds. Have I mentioned the Blackcaps? At least 2 - a male arrived and met, or rather was met by the female. [Ouch..] There might be 2 females, but this is so far unconfirmed.