Back To Reality

Aka work.

Oh joy.



But before I got to go and be a useful productive member of society again, I have a little more to report.


Friday saw the painful necessity to do things other than chase birds, but I still got to the Downs to check the Blackball roost - a mere and paltry 3 GC Grebes, with about 400 Kitts and 2700+ large gulls in a strong SW and attacks of light rain.. Hmm.


Saturday went better, with a decent seawatch!
While main force of the weather went by overnight, there was still enough in the conditions to give a morning's worth of entertainment at the Nose. While mostly it was the usual Gannets, Kitts, and auks with the odd Fulmar, this time Fulmar and especially auk numbers were markedly up - more than 1000 [again about 60/40, but I suspect most of the passing Guilles were going to BH] mostly in the first two hours. Also very much of note was a grey style Blue Fulmar  :D

Twice a Pom Skua showed up to harass Kitts then sit on the sea - neither time did it pass and I suspect it was the same bird. A Bonxie went South, then what again looked like the same bird came North. A lone male RB Merganser and a lone female C Scoter were surpassed in the curiosity stakes by a flock of Canada Geese [!] - rare here, I can tell you - which came over calling in a band of really thick gunk. By volume and frequency of calls, I reckon there were at least 10 of them.

Finally, to my relief, the divers finally showed up. Ok, three of them. But they were 2 passing GNDs and a superb BTD - sat posing in a patch of sunshine in the lee of the Ore Stone!


I spent much of the afternoon bashing the Patch for Blackstart, to no avail. Couldn't find a Bullfinch, either..



So to Sunday, glorious Sunday...


Fourth time was the charm at Dart's Farm, where along with a few of Devon's [and places further off, too] finest, I was treated to some brilliant views of those pesky Pendulines. Here you go;

Tits!

"Dammit, he's seen us!"

Also on display was the Black Brant, tarting about with the Brents;

Obvious when you got on it...

I stopped off at Matford on my way home - no dice on anything novel; 6 Shoveler, 2 Little Grebe and a Common Gull the most interesting - before taking an afternoon stroll about Yarner with the Folks. Very nice it was too, amazingly quiet for a Sunday.



So, back at work. Though I did get to Blackball on Monday; 5 GC Grebes, 550+ Kitts and 3100+ large gulls [plus a Cormorant and 2 Shags out late]. I blame all the warm weather.




Finally, having had a better look at my records, I'm going to take the more logical step of making comparison with my standing Devon record year - 2012. So I can tell you that I'm up to the 11th of March.