Snow snow snow, what's a birder to do?
Say "I ain't afraid of no snow!" and get up on't Moor of course!!
Lookit! Dartmoor!
Ain't it purdy?
Vitifer and Hamel Down
By employing my kunnin' plan of sticking to main roads I did not find any ice at all and arrived at my chosen spot - Warren House - intact. From there I was able to merrily toddle
Getting to Fernworthy in cold weather is tricky due to a stretch of very steep, curving, and above all wet road. This turns into a very good likeness of a glacier and is nigh on impassable to anyone without a badass 4x4, nerves of steel, nothing coming the other way, and no worry about insurance premiums...
While I could probably get up if I had to, it's not that important, so instead I just park to the south and wander in. There are even paths, and a handy gate or three. There's even the chance of a bird. This time I actually saw one! Ok, it was a Mipit, but still - more than expected.
The snow was probably about an inch deep, plus and minus drifting and scouring thanks to that breeze, but the ambient was above zero and stayed there, so not that nasty, really. I ended up getting quite hot actually - but I had dressed for 'Levels in cold winter' and the sun shone quite a bit. When it wasn't snowballing..
[I did take a picture of it snowballing, but it just looks overcast and slightly out of focus..]
[[So nothing new there, then..]]
As well as just enjoying being at Fernworthy - there were bits where nobody else had been before me and none followed, either! - I had a few birds in mind. The Crossbills were present in numbers but not big flocks. Siskin and Redpoll did give a couple of nice big groups, though none of them really posed for me. All the snow was great for tracks; at least 2 different Foxes [paw size], though there could have been as many as 8 around. Definitely a group of 6 Red Deer, plenty of Rabbits, also the Ponies and a couple of small flocks of Sheeeep [LBD would have had such fun...] Nothing else, though [I was hoping for a Stoat or Weasel or something..]
The reservoir was pretty quiet when I had lunch in the hide; a small band of Herrings and LBBs were driven off by snowballs, a few ducks [7 Teal, 1 Tufty] and a Little Grebe cowered by the far bank.. But ah, then some waders appeared! At least 1 and possibly a couple more Snipe lurked in the flooded tussocky bits and were revealed [a bit] when a Grey Heron landed there, and a Common Sand flew down the shoreline! Result.
My primary and secondary targets were both present, with the secondary putting on a very vocal display notable also for its staying below the hilltops and thus out of the wind's force! Smart boy.
Needless to say, I nearly had a cow and am still rather giddy with it. My primary target was more elusive, giving me the run around before finally popping up just as I'd given up and was on my way out. Birds, eh?
For the Devon Year, I'm now 30 birds ahead of this time in 2012; up to early April. And I still need blimmin' Blackstart!
Earlier....
Friday saw a Patch bashing with little result apart from a very nice 15 Purple Sandpipers on Haldon Pier. I got there at high water and found ten roosting on one boulder!
Saturday's birding was terribly constrained and would have been 'bugger all', but for an audiomig Home Tick - Grey Plover!
Late News; Sunday night, after a silence that kicked in in late December [the gits] the local owls finally remembered how to call and did so with vigour. [Bit late now, you feathery buggers]
And finally....
Wandering up a track looking at tracks in Fernworthy, I wondered why a couple had gone up and come down the same track at a run. When I found the point they'd turned around, I found the answer....
TROLL!!!
;D
Be Seeing You
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