The Agony And The Ecstasy

Sorry about the cheese, there.


Right then, a better [maybe] account of the weekend's fun and frolics;

After a refreshing three day working week [definitely the future, people] - spoiled only by that lovely complex low coming in on Thursday instead of Saturday. Tut. - I gave the Patch much bashing in the hopes of late winterers and early migrants. On Friday afternoon, I dared a gap in the rain and found 80+ Herrings and a dozen Geebs knocking about the flotsam and jetsam off Oddicombe. One was quite interesting-looking, but no more than that and then it rained hard.

Saturday dawned murky but with a brisk easterly wind. I figured the Nose would be blown out and so stayed more inland. Oh dear. At the time, I was enjoying all the poor phylloscs [while worrying how many hundreds the cats will have gotten... :( ] - the star being another Garden Willow Warbler! Also in the Garden, and shockingly sharing a bush for nearly 30 seconds without any attempt at avicide, were three Blackcaps! [2 males and a female]. The other highlight of the morning was a stunning female Green Woodpecker in the Do-It-All quarry [the place where they want to build a Morrison's]. I watched her working along the kerb by the old car park for almost ten minutes - closest views of a Green Wood just doing it's thing I've ever had :D
After stopping home for lunch - not quite spat out at the 'puter - I headed out again. The Nose had 4 Wheatears still about, with 13 GC Grebes and a showy Grey Seal offshore. Drat.
I found 3 Willow Warblers and easily ten times that number of Chiffs in the day - almost all of them feeding very low down [one was on a small, highly manicured garden lawn, another working along a concrete path, the banks along IMD were full of them] and some very confiding...

Sunday I got up and out sharp for some reason..?!? The Nose surprised me again with a frickin' Ring Ouzel in the Entrance Bushes! WTF?? I thought they were supposed to be shy? Well, it certainly cleared off quickly enough; the only decent view I got was it's arse as it flew off alarming - into the North Side, naturally. Still, Patch Ouzel no. 3 - not to be sniffed at. This is, I know, a very very low number, but the trouble is that there are lots of little Ouzel-friendly bits you can't get at, and the only good spots - the Nose and Walls Hill - are dogged out. No, not like that. What I mean is that, no matter how early you get there - even if you do so before sunrise - someone will have been there already with a dog. 95% probability it's loose. 99% probability it won't be picked up after ["It's grass..."]. Ahem. Getting back from that tangent.. At least 23 Mipits and a lone Wheatear were lower down, with a few more Chiffs and another Willow Warbler higher up.

I nipped back home mid-morning and to my delight, not only had the Bluethroat at Fraggle Rock stayed, but there was a Kentish Plover there too!!!!! Tally-ho!

En route, a Swallow overtook me just east of Bridport - I was of course being very good - and I took this as a good omen. Then I got to Ferrybridge - nice crowd, so pay up and.. No Sign for hours. Fuck. I had my lunch and enjoyed the icy breeze while sifting through Ringos and Dunlin over and again...
Ok, it's not in sight. Either it's gone, in which case I'm stuffed, or it's just moved a bit and the tide will bring it back close. So, off to the Bill I go, arriving to find that the Bluethroat's just been flushed by a photographer [allegedly]. I think some very rude words, get glared at by the Obs Quarry Little Owl and start scanning the bushes..

Ooh, what's that dark thing with red sides to the tail base just flown past me? Jackpot! Cue: one stunning male White-spotted Bluethroat. You've seen the pics, it's beautiful. It also seems to have taken a blow to the head and now thinks it's a Robin. Aren't they supposed to be super-skulky reedbed and willow lurkers?? Not this chap, oh no. Hopped about, bold as you like - held himself quite like a Wren, tail cocked - and even had a fight with a Robin! Wonderful...

But the lure of the Kentish could not be denied, so I headed back to Ferrybridge, where the tide had snapped up with astonishing rapidity. Not a sign. I had by this time heard news of 'a Stone Curlew on Orcombe Point' - but, not having the vital 'Gore Lane' caveat, assumed it had been on the actual point and thus would have been flushed very quickly... Plus, a possible Stone Curlew versus a Kentish that might appear at any second?

When I finally accepted that I'd dipped Kentish Plover again [I think that's seven, now] I headed home, not to Exmouth - to be honest I was too dipped out to really think logically about it. Yes, For Want Of A Pager..   I'm still not getting one.


I'm just concentrating on the Bluethroat. What a bird.



Yes, just the Bluethroat.







I really hate Kentish Plovers...