Those Moments of Delight

Yesterday being Fathers' Day, I did not go off seawatching or for that matter twitching Greenish Warblers [Aren't I good?]. With the weather forecast being definitely dodgy, the traditional picnic was out and descending on Sister the ElderYounger was also not on the cards as she had a new Father of her own to spoil.

So, Sister the YoungerYounger and I tried to find somewhere to take Dad out for lunch. This was as you'd expect not easy on very short notice, but Sister succeeded and so after morning coffee and cake [also provided by my favourite Sister - isn't she a star?] we toddled over to - yes, here comes a plug - the wonderful Angels Tearooms on Babbacombe Downs. I'm not one for eating out, especially on Patch, so have never been there before, despite it getting assorted rave reviews. I can now say that said reviews are not overstated. If you get the chance, go there. I won't go on about it any more than to say it is at the other end of a little road to Hanbury's and there must be some serious mojo in that stretch of tarmac... :D

Ahem.
Much wonderful scran later, the LBD was collected and we went for an amble. No birds of note; a Hornet was the most interesting thing in the air. I did see something very welcome, though, at the area of grass between St. Marychurch and Petitor [by the Model Village]. To my surprise, the Council have actually done something right and have left the majority of the grass unmown! It's a sea of wild grasses - I can probably only dream about finding butterflies there - and Tilly bounced through it like a Springbok.. ;)


Today I determined to try the Nose, even though the forecast NE would make finding shelter tough. As it happened, the wind was a lot less than implied, and the rain [after an early soaking] was a couple of brief periods of spotting... Oh well, I settled down among the Mounds - the lack of howling wind at least meaning I had shelter and view, and got to it.

Passage was.. well, it was shite.  Gannets 19/hr, Kittiwakes 29/hr, Manxies 10/hr. The Kitts were mostly late on and came in little pulses over a background trickle, said pulses often pausing to feed from what there was of the slick. Three Fulmars passed south as well.. but not all gloom, as there were 4 good birds: a distant Puffin and 3 skuas; one of each. An hour or so apart, first a 4cy dark Pom, then a Bonxie, then a 3cy dark-intermediate Arctic all came south, all harassed unlucky Kitts, and all showed very well doing it! :)

With it being quiet and the light being mostly ok - the sun tried to come out a few times, but never fully succeeded - I had the chance to give the Ore Stone a going-over with the Big Scope and counted 391 auks, including 6 Razorbills, on the ledges. This is an excellent count for the site; it looks like the locals dodged the PIB [sign the petition!] bullets  :)

It got brighter and brighter, warmer and warmer, and birds got scarcer and scarcer, so I packed it in after mid day and went to do some shopping. It's non-stop excitement.