Spoon!

Evil men, you face The Tick.

:D

Ahem. Apathy ruled for most of today, when finally I got over it I wandered over to The Nose to see what was going past.

Dark phase, fully spooned, Pom Skua. That's what. Nice bin range, too. It cruised by south at 1625, gave a Geeb some grief in passing and motored on.

Ho-ly Shiiit.....

I'm a happy birder.

I did timed counts to see what else was doing, with hourly rates of 60 for Manxies, 90 for Gannets, and 30 for Fulmars. Only got one Kitt through while timing, so... There were plenty of auks about, as you'd expect from a busy little colony like the Ore Stone [and with a busier one just over there] - but at least 4 Razorbills were interesting among the Guilles.

The strong SSE with rain bands in the constant drizzle [after the bulk of the day was solid heavy rain] gradually lifted, and by the time I was getting home the sun came out...

Yesterday, the Jubilee Family Weekend theme continued with a wander around the Meavy / Burrator area with Folks, Dog, and Sister the Younger. We had a good time, Tilly had a great time, unfortunately the midgies did pretty well too - finding somewhere to picnic where Little Black Dogs can't see little white sheep led to being tucked down out of the wind... One swift change of location later and things improved. A bit. Sister still got chickenpoxed, though. Ouch. Moral of the story; when you're offered repellant, don't say no.

The birds were active, with a Wood Warbler, Redstarts, Tree Pipits, Siskin, Willow Warblers and so on among the trees. I counted 4 Cuckoos, one of which posed nicely for us on a Hawthorn in the Meavy valley. Also there, Grey Wagtails in trees! Ok, Hawthorns and Rowans, but still. Just the one Wheatear to report, but he was very pretty all the same. :)   A female Demoiselle sp. was messing about the leat in the reservoir compound, but was too sneaky to ID properly.


Still no low-flying Kites..