Proper Winter Resumes

Namely rain.


I was out in it today, freely and of my own will. In full waterproofs, mind. :)

I'd decided to do a full survey of what was on the sea off the Peninsula, seeing as it was rather rainy but not that windy. The temptation to go chasing Smew - two males at Roadford, a female at Exminster plus Merlins... I mean, come on! Who wouldn't?? - was leavened by the knowledge that I had been neglecting the Patch recently [Friday's escapades being the first proper bashing since January] and also the ridiculous rise in petrol. I don't know about where you are, dear readers, but here it's gone up 6p/l [About 4.6%] in two weeks. I know I've gone on about this before, so refer to that if you're really bored..

EDIT: Make that 9p in three weeks - that's almost  7%!!!!  I mean, for fuck's sake......


What did I find? Well; 76 GC Grebes, 1 BN Grebe, 2 RT Divers, 4 C Scoter, and 2 Razorbills. I don't know where all the auks have gone....  Everything except the Scoter, 1 Razorbill [which was in the Inner Harbour], and 1 GC Grebe were on the north side. The pontoon when I got to it had 2 whole Herring Gulls, but I wasn't expecting many as they were all either chasing fishing boats or at the Nose. The South West's Biggest Chumming Machine was running and it had a large gaggle of customers; a few Kitts, LBBs, and Common Gulls with BHGs, Herrings and GBBs.


Halfway through the rain gave up, the sun came out and it all got quite pretty. I did try again for the fancy grebes [with Slavs now joining the Red-neck, it seemed worth a try once more] lurking off to the south, but with the shiny sunshine and just enough chop to be annoying, the best I could pick out were dots. Oh well.


My previous naughty grebe-snatching attempt was on Friday, when I took the li'l scope out and had a go at the Red-neck from various points from Daddyhole to the Harbour. The conditions weren't perfect, but I'd managed to get a Long-tailed Duck off Preston from the Harbour with bins before and the Big Scope can reach across the Bay quite happily, so the li'l scope might just reach to Broadsands [well, worth a try, anyway...]. Needless to say, I failed, though I did get a grebe sp. off Hollicombe which wasn't a GC, BN, [or Little!] but I couldn't rule out Slav on the vexingly brief view. [This being irony - it probably was a Slav, of course. The 'probably', though..]. On the sea and close enough to be sure of were a GN Diver, 2 GC Grebes and a variety of Guilles and Razorbills. After giving up on the sea, 12 Purple Sands on the Real Living Coast were, I must admit, far more enjoyable to look at than any 'just barely identifiable' grebe in the far blue yonder.


On Saturday I went somewhere secret and saw something protected under Schedule 1, so no more will be said on that. I also went to Mardon Down, near Mor'n'ampster. There are a couple of very nice circles there - a big 'proper' one and a cairn circle - the big one is on the ridge top and has some truly amazing views. Actually, the cairn circle on the north flank has a serious panorama to it as well. I was surprised to see that neither is in Burl's Guide, which is odd as they're both interesting monuments. It's not a perfect site; the hill is mostly covered in low gorse, with brambles, and by the profusion of stems, a very thick covering of bracken later in the year. Also, it seems that every dog in Moreton is walked there, so eyes needs to be down more than you'd like with those views..  I got rained on a couple of times while I was there, but it was still a very enjoyable day. :)