On Patch

Two days of birding on the Patch to report, though no mostly-white-winged gulls up this end of the Bay...

Yesterday it was slim pickings, with another near-miss of the Firecrest probably the best of it. At least 8 Purple Sandpipers at the Real Living Coast were nice, though the mournful cries of the poor captive Choughs and Fairy Terns took a bit of the gloss off.

Today, less wind and more sun meant more birds. Seabirds made the headlines, with only a singing male Blackcap really standing out on land. Offshore, a silver-calm sea [more or less] gave me my first Great Northern Diver of the year - a moulting adult near Thatcher Rock. Before that, an examination of the gulls tarting around the Nose gave a smart adult LBB [interestingly dark, but not that dark and too bulky to be worth fetching a scope for] but no white-wingers. At least 110 Guillemots were hanging around the Ore Stone ledges, with a few Razorbills inshore.

Getting to Haldon Pier, 6 Purple Sands were at the inland end. No sign of any on the boulders, possibly due to the young whippersnappers hanging around by and on the oil store [an impressive climb up its curving outer wall] and clambering on the rocks [a more impressive climb back up from there!]. They weren't doing any harm [assuming none of them fell off..] and I wandered on to the end to scan the Bay. Again, the better conditions helped - a few GC Grebes plus 2 Black-necked and a Slavonian were very welcome. There was also a big-looking sea duck off Preston / Paignton. It took a while to get a good silhouette but eventually nailed as a [presumably female due to no white bits] Eider. Sweet.

Sweeter was to come. As I headed to interrogate the few cowering Herring Gulls on the pontoon in the Inner Harbour I picked up a movement on the water in the Outer Harbour, right in the corner by the Ramps. Holy Shit, a Little Grebe! An adult, actively diving in the quite clear water - you could see it doing it's frog-kicks for a second or two as it descended into the depths. Wow. :D As I was stood there cooing over it, the distinctive call of a Redshank flying along the coast came to my ears. As I've said before, Redshanks are [usually] noisy twitchy buggers of birds, but on my Patch they're a welcome rarity. I'm not chasing a Patch Yearlist again. I have a job. I want my shoes to last more than a year. I'm not chasing a Patch Yearlist.

Or any other kind of Yearlist.

I'm just keeping score for reference purposes. That's all.

I'm only on 63 anyway....