Not Yet..

Spring is most definitely in the air. Since my surprise YLG its been all sing, sing, sing! on the bird front. Mr Blackcap's been at it, as well as many others on the Patch; a Treeeeecreeeper was merrily singing away today. :D I've caught birds nest-building [not just the Sparrows, either. Today I passed a Song Thrush with a huge billful of dried grass], displaying and indeed engaging in [CENSORED]. I tell you, the noises Nuthatches make when they [CENSORED], its quite an ear-opener, let me tell you.

I've had annoying stuff getting in the way of birding - not only time-taking but expensive car-related stuff. Drat and double drat. I managed to get to the Nose first thing yesterday, hoping for a nice Wheatear to grip the Backwater off, but no joy. Or again today - though I couldn't get down until the afternoon. The Guillemots are starting to gather on the Ore Stone - but only early on, today they were mostly gone, so not getting into the full-on breeding quite yet. The Rockits are very busy, with extra fuss today as the locals had a stranger to deal with - a littoralis, no less [when I first saw it, just for a second I thought it was a Water and my heart leapt at the thought of a Patch Tick, but no.]. Climbing back up the Lower Slope I stopped to watch a Dunnock feeding on ants - they each put up a struggle and had to be subdued, so quite a lot of effort [and formic acid in the chops?] for tea, there.

In other news, tonight there was a brief respite in the bloody clouds, enabling me to get nice views of Mars, Venus, and Jupiter [with all 4 Galilean moons showing very well] via the Big Scope. Of course, any chance at Mercury, Uranus, and Saturn [ie. what I really wanted to see] was foiled. [[So far - it still might let me get Saturn later on, you never know...]]. In yet other news, the new neighbours over there have decided to hack down pretty much every green thing in their garden, including the Holly the birds coming into our garden used to check the coast was clear. With no secure perch close enough, bird traffic has dropped by an order of magnitude. We are an island in an expanding sea of concrete, gravel, and decking. I'm very unamused. I'm also thinking about a leylandii....