If The Wind Changes

Even as a very small child I thought that one was ridiculous..



But anyway!


Being very British, I must comment upon the weather; on Friday when I got home from work it was 14°. On Monday it was 3°. Ouch.
Snow is in the air, but so fine you only really notice it when it gets you in the eye. Double ouch.


I have been Patch-bashing in diligent hope of migrants, but the wide yet light scattering of Wheatears that has fallen upon Devon has not included here. I had some hope of a grounded migrant at the Nose on Saturday, what with all the mistyfog everywhere, but I found only one, and that a Mipit. It was an unusually showy Mipit, and a Patch Year Tick, 'tis true... But it wasn't a Wheatear.

Not much sea to see, though that didn't stop me almost scoring wonderfully, with a Bottlenose Dolphin [the one with the split dorsal fin] right close in off the Nose. I got down onto the rocks to try for a picture, but at that point a twonk in a motorboat decided to come by and flushed it. [Yes, same effect - no more animal - so same word!]. Despite my hanging around hopefully, it didn't reappear..

Otherwise the only sea sightings of any note were a w/pl Guillemot off Meadfoot and a large diver sp. [almost certainly a GND, but the sun came out!] way way out in mid Bay. The Purple Sands were roosting well spread out among the boulders on the Real Living Coast and I could only find 8. Inshore, Spring was in the air, most definitely, with much singing going on, including at least two Blackcaps.


Mothering Sunday went very well, despite the weather, as a well-planned scheme was put into action. A careful maskirovka worked even better than hoped and Mum was taken far into cornwall before she twigged where we were really going. After an indoor picnic with Sister, Brother-in-law and Nephew, the menfolk took the Mad Dogs [yup, they've got one too, though bigger and shaggier] out for a yomp through wind, rain, and mud. We wandered up a very nice wooded valley, with unsurprisingly few birds around, though it looks promising for later in the year. En route, we passed a very soggy meadow where the mad dogs put up a Water Rail - I've not seen one in flight for years! - and a group of pipits had an interesting-looking member, which I couldn't chase up, unfortunately. I don't know, you'd think people would be more willing to stand around in the rain while the wind whistled around their ears and the mud lapped around their ankles, on the off chance of a Water Pipit... but no.

Crazy.