Another Thcwewy Duck

The thing about chasing a yearlist is that it means that you have to go chasing yearticks. Birds you may well otherwise not bother spending hours looking for [note the absence of the word 'seeing', there]. Then going out again and again until you do get that seeing thing. Or hearing, to be fair. [[The thought of a seen-only yearlist is frankly unnerving, I must admit. I mean, there's commitment and then there's sheer masochism...]]


Anyways..

Not a huge amount to report, really. I had a wander about Yarner on Saturday with the Folks. There may have been a flask and the last of the currant and walnut flapjacks involved. There were certainly 5 flavours of tits showing very nicely at the hide and the Primroses were starting to show leaf. Must be getting on for spring or something.



Sunday saw me knuckling down after Spoonbills. I'd failed to slog all the way up t'North when I had the chance last month, and fortunately, those 'orrible north winds seem to have blown them down a whole lot closer. Also a certain yankee quacker. [[Assuming they are the same birds, which is at least possible?]]

So, with some amusement, I headed over the Tamar to cornywall to try for Devon birds. :)


China Lake Country Club. Never been there before. Interesting place.

I must say, I approve of golf clubs which provide free access to hides overlooking interesting bits of scenery. I took great pleasure in parking in their nice car park, wandering along the track beside the driving range, then spending the sunny side of two hours looking for an American Wigeon that wasn't there. The Spoonbills were there - mostly asleep*, just off the sewage works - when I arrived, but they too soon made like bananas. [Turns out they went up Ernesettle, though of course this is with the aid of hindsight and DBN]
The rising tide kept me hopeful, and I hoped a great deal. That one of those nice groups of Wigeon out on the Devon side of the Tamar would turn out to have an AmWig with them, say...


The Goddess of Birding was not that pleased with me, alas. Though She did favour my persistence eventually, as the pesky yankee flew in at 1705 with a couple of Wigeon and settled firmly in cornish territory. Bastard. They seemed to have come from the south, and as I'd checked everything right down to the Bridges, I reckon they'd been along the Lynher. No picture, as it was too dusky for my pesky phone... Oh well.

Other birds included 4 GC and a Little Grebe on the Tamar and at least 8 Greenshank showing amazingly well along Kingsmill Lake. Its a little bit of a trek to the second hide, but the possibility of views like that makes it worth the wander.



No fluky low-flying owls or raptors to report, but being late out of work yesterday did pay dividends in the form of a courting couple of Collared Doves. Ching!



Comparing to 2012, I'm now up to the 6th of April.

Not bad, not bad, but I still need frickin' Blackstart.. This is primarily due to my determination that I'll find one on Patch. In any other winter that would not usually be much of a problem, but evidently they read this blog and have decided to vex me. Now, I know that for listing purposes, Blackstart is no more important than Spoonbill and if I went to frickin' cornwall to get them..  But Spoonbills don't winter on Patch.


Ok, blabbering over.




[[*One of them stretched a bit - showing off its spoon - then went back to sleep. This is the Spoonbill equivalent of a brisk jog around the block.]]