I Twitch, Therefore I am

Someone who's seen a Brunnich's Guillemot at ridiculously close range!

:D


What a wonderful little bastard of a bird! Mobile and elusive and showing cripplingly at the same time. Not bad.

Unlike this;

Yet another Brunnich's Pic

With another 1w Black Guille, BTDs, another female Eider, a hatful of RB Mergs as support, it was very pleasant birding. I turned up, the Brunnich's was right there.. YE GODS... Having seen it insanely well, I figured that, instead of chasing a bird that could swim faster than I could walk [if not run, it moved] I should stay put in the spot I was in, where I could see the bit where it had been resting in past days.. This would have worked if it had stopped moving to preen or something, but it didn't. Oh well, I still had two hours of amusement watching the BG pop up here there and everywhere, oh and the horde stampeding after it.. ;)


I decided to relocate to Radipole as the rain arrived, where the Hooded Merganser* was fishing down by the dam [though it later realised lots of twitchers were in town and came up to the bridge]. The reserve was slightly underwater, with 2" of water over the boardwalks, which were floating - a little unnerving to walk on! - on the way to the hide. Lunch under a roof meant not a lot of birds, with only Bearded Tits in the distance to speak of until I was packing up, whereupon more than a hundred ducks flew in!

They were mostly Teal and I didn't tarry long - quick counts and Green-winged checks - as I had an appointment with an Ibis and the frickin' meter was running [::Mutter mutter::]. The walk turned out to be much much much longer than I thought it would be, but the Glossy Ibis was gorgeous!

It's an Ibis

Parking time up, but daylight to burn; I headed home with a detour. Not a birding one, though there was the odd bird about [mostly Pheasants]. Turning off the coast road up onto the ridgeways, I parked off a little lane and followed a bridleway. My goals; the Grey Mare and Her Colts en route to Kingston Russell Circle. The stones at Kingston Russell are all down, but the location is incredible! Oh, but the views.... For the first time in a long while I got the proper camera out. Also incredible was the mud - definitely one for dry weather..

Kingston Russell, western half

Kingston Russell, eastern half

Looking at the pics, they don't seem much, do they? You've got to be there.



As I headed back to my li'l car, a big flock of Lapwing came over; I counted 246. Lovely way to end a brilliant day's birding.



[[*I've gone into this before, it's as plastic as the Brunnich's.]]