And It Rained

Warblers!!!


Ye Gods and Little Fishes was the Nose jumping today...


Unfortunately, when I got down there this morning, it was as a flying visit before I took the li'l car for a service... Aargh.

I wasn't expecting much - well, I wasn't expecting anything really, other than vismigging Mipits, maybe. But despite the blazing sunshine, it was heaving. I didn't get ten feet from the gate! There were Chiffs everywhere; in the trees, the bushes, flying about overhead... Boom! Pied Fly! PATCH TICK!!! Shit! Got to go..


Cue a couple of hours to kill just outside of The Patch. Might as well wander over to [Famous Devon Artist]'s Jewel in the Crown; Clennon! A few Chiffs - no Sibes yet* - and no fancy little stripy phylloscs, either. On the lowest pond, a couple of Little Grebes and a couple of Shoveler were accompanied by a couple of Snipe, just sitting in the sunshine! Too much in the sunshine for my phone;

The one on the right is preening. Honest.

Further up, a Grey Wagtail posed on a post [came out very blurred] and a big surprise as a Green Woodpecker actually stayed still in plain sight!

Even struck a pose...

A Clouded Yellow flew past low and a couple of House Martins went over high.



Right, got the car back - to the Nose!!!


A few clouds had shown up, but this helped cut the glare and fortunately, most of the birds were still about. Not sitting still, of course! No further sign of the Pied Fly, but 30+ Chiff, 6+ Blackcap, and single Garden and Willow Warblers in the Top Dell and First Slope alone...  Wow. Plenty of tits about, too, including a nice band of LTTs - they didn't have a YBW with them, though. Mipits were moving overhead in small groups and lower down both Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady failed to settle close enough to try phonebinning.. A GSW struck a pose in one of the Planes, but was sneaky enough to not get snapped. Less able to dodge was this wonderful piece of geology;

The Ore Stone from the Top Dell

A lovely example of thrusting here; the rocks being compressed from either side have folded before the strain got too much and the right side has been pushed up over the left. You can see the diagonal plane of the fault running up at about 45°. Also you can see where the upthrust strata [layers] have thickened [to the left of the boat] as the rocks deformed - think of them as plasticene and you're not far off!
That little light spot above the 'the' in the caption is why I took the photo; it's a hole through the island!! I didn't know this existed; you can only see it from the right angle when the tide is a long way out on a calm day - the sea must have eroded away the shattered rock along the fault. Isn't it brilliant?? :D


This was a classic day at the Nose, real migrant city stuff. The variety in the Chiffs alone was amazing.


In other news; at least one Bullfinch overhead late this afternoon, earlier yet another Clouded Yellow over the Garden. Yesterday, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in the front garden!




As for Thursday... Bugger.

[[*Not many places you can say that!]]