Kettles

Seems to be the thing right now, with the gulls doing it for things other than passing raptors, and me feeling like I'm in one.

Less whining, more birds.

Flying ants are the order of the day, with upwards of 250 Herring Gulls munching on them - making for quite a sight and sound. Biggest single one I counted was right out back, a good 150 gulls [plus a few corvids] and at least 8 juveniles in among them. I would give a nice exact count, but when the bastards are circling right overhead and more are arriving all the time while others are sloping off... Its an appreciable fraction of the Bay's [sizable] Herring population. It's interesting that the Geebs don't get involved, as its clearly such a good food source. I suppose with them being battered mobbed whenever they get near the Herring's nests, they just stick to the coast. They are more maritime than the very cosmopolitan Herrings - they'll come to the harbour area but that's pretty much it.

In the Garden, having let all the bushes run wild in an attempt to give the birds some decent top cover, we've seen what may be a link in that we're getting Goldfinches more regularly. They used to be a real rarity, mind. It could be they're just having a good year [or a bad one and are ranging further], but it might be the new terrain is more to their liking. Interesting. Still a lack of anything other than Sparrows, Greenfinches [these reduced] and the odd kamikaze Blue Tit...

Today I decided to get out and use the weather - once it stopped being overcast and windy, which took a while - to go chasing odonata again. Reasoning that a sustained burst of hot sunshine should help things get going, I went to Countess Wear and ambled slowly [too hot for anything else] down to the Old Sludge Beds and back. If you've read [Famous Devon Dragonflyer*]'s recent report and felt despondent, think again, as there are plenty of odonata to go around now! Not a huge variety of dragons - I got Emperors and Black-taileds, plus a surprise Southern Hawker - but a whole heap of damselflies. 7 species today, with the first Small Red-eyed being about - though fun to pick from the mass of Large Red-eyed. I found two White-legged Damselflies and two Banded Demoiselles [wow, huge numbers there.. ;) ] among the mass of Azure and Blue-tailed, too. Azure was most common, with Large Red-eyed narrowly beating Blue-tailed into third.

Birds of note were a couple of adult LBBs, which repeatedly tried diving for fish in the canal, to no success that I saw. Having done well with the insects, I decided to try to improve the birds by heading over to Matford - maybe there would be a nice Green Sand? No chance; circling the marsh to get views of all the bits of exposed mud through the thick greenery, I only found one wader... a Wood.  :D Worth getting hot under the collar for.. ;)




[[*Apologies for that one.]]