Very Tasty.

Well, I'm back on the Night Shift - yay! - and so today has seen my first Friday birding for far too long! [Bank Hollydays don't count].

But before all that... Yesterday got me my first Swift of the year - out the window, too! Wednesday got me a surprise Work Tick, when from the loo of all places [though I suppose it makes sense, it's the only quiet room in the place!] I heard a reeling Gropper!!! This was at about 0545, by the way, and the poor thing had to compete with the local dawn chorus; I could only hear him when the Wren took a breath!


Today.... I got down to the Nose as soon as I could. The cloud had come in overnight as forecast, but cleared up as I was getting turned around and by the time I arrived on site, it was blazing sunshine! This helped counteract the not inconsiderable bite of the wind. Very bipolar, the conditions; either freezing or roasting! Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were in evidence from the road and I soon struck gold with a Lesser Whitethroat in the Entrance Bushes  :D  It wasn't feeling showy and quickly buggered off - little git - but still, a good start!

The Top Dell was vexingly barren - though a pair of active and vocal Blackcaps may explain that - but I did manage to pick out a couple of Wheatears right down on Sandy Point after finding the whole of the sunlit sheltered South Side birdless... Heading down that way - taking the usual Steps Path - I was detoured halfway down the Lower Slope by the sound of Whitethroats singing :)  I also didn't feel like heading into the sun while searching out those Wheatears!

Really. Good. Call.
I was following the little contour sheep track to the Mud Path when an interesting call came from upslope. Not so casual glance to my left revealed a bird atop a bush, but what's that beneath it? Flash of red? Yes - Redstart! Female! It popped up into the occupied bush and sat for a few seconds in the same binocular field as the other bird - oh come on! Whinchat!!

I am not ashamed to admit that I danced on the spot... ;)

Birds in a bush, lit by the sun.. The phone came out and they were gone. Drat. I moved on and ooh! There the Redstart is again! She sat in a Hawthorn and I tried my luck. Unfortunately, phonebinning is very much  a random shot, as with the sun out I can't actually see what's on my phone's screen.. Yup, missed. Oh well..

On again on again and now the Whitethroat count started up properly - I ended up with 5, all singing males - and the Wheatears too, showed themselves. Seven little darlings at least, with two looking good for Greenland. A couple actually sat and posed, I've been nice and only added a one of them, so look away now if you value your retinas...

Sitting on The Wall, gazing out to sea, wondering why he bothered...

A few more numbers; Chiffs 8, Willow Warbler 1, Blackcaps 3, Guillemots visible through bins 165, Commic tern south 1.

EDIT: No sign of any Marsh Harriers over the Nose while I was there and with plenty of assorted gulls and corvids hanging about looking for trouble, I think it's a safe bet that either the Berry Head bird either took a detour or sat on a fishing boat for a couple of hours! Bugger.

Right then, where to next? Big-looking shower-y type clouds had started to loom, and as the Exe seemed like a good place to be, I went to see the vestiges of the tide at Bowling Green. Vestiges is a good term, with 2 Avocet, about 120 Blackwit, and a Dunlin still there when I arrived. A scattering of ducks, a few warblers, a sneaky Wheatear, and eventually the star birds - they were beautiful in the sunshine, I have to say;

It took two hours, but eventually they came out together.

Lunch was eaten, coffee drunk, and I considered heading out to the Goatwalk - Spotshank? Little Gull? LTD?   Nah, sod it, a Wild Wagtail/Egret Hunt will be much more fun!

After having to reverse the length of the straight cratered bit twice*, I started looking around for little yellow jobs by coobeasties and big white jobs in ditches. There were Sedge and Reed Warblers - joy - there were two women with very loose Coot-chasing dogs - [CENSORED] - but no sign of what I was Chasing. Ok, change of tactic; I went and stood next to the two birders by the halfway gate. Ooh! Yellow Wags! Hey, wait a minute, look at that one...

Mobile and sneaky bird, plus gusty wind, plus rubbish camera equals

Two rubbish record shots!

JACKPOT!!!!!

:D

Blue-headed Wag still present, with what was at first 3, then 4, then finally 8 Yellow Wagtails! At least a half dozen birders got to see it, including [Devon Birder Who Missed The Night Heron By 5 Minutes - sorry! ;) ]. We were also treated to a display of hawking by a gorgeous Hobby. Oh, and those 3 Bar-headed Geese were there, too.

Cracking day!

[[*Normally my fellow road-users only get that treat once - there being room to pass at the bridge, after all - but number two was a big tractor with a muck spreader...]]