Sylvianian Gits..

After all the fun down in the Hams, I spent the rest of the birding weekend on Patch.


In a stunning break from tradition, I actually found something interesting that wasn't at the Nose. I know, shocking, isn't it?

But I'll get to that bit.


So, morning and evening visits were.. moderately productive and more than moderately vexing.


Sunday morning was the best for birds, with reasonable numbers of Chiffs and Blackcaps about, plus the couple of birds who named this here post. Of note, a couple of very nice and very Greenland-y Wheatears, up at the Lookout of all places [probably driven up by marauding dogs..]. I almost got  a point-blank picture. Also at least 2 Whinchat lurking around the South Side and a party of 12 Blackbirds!

A female Southern Hawker was good, but a male Beautiful Demoiselle was not only a Patch Tick but a first order 'where the vickers did you come from??' Two or three Clouded Yellow - one my first helice of the year - were also highlights, though also far too mobile to photo.

The insects showed up after the sea fog burned away, changing things dramatically and making what had seemed to be a potentially blank trip quite eventful.


Observe pretty scenery;

A line of yachts on a mercury sea,

mist lifting.

Top Dell and Thatcher Rock

in sunshine

Berry Head still wreathed in mistyfog

There you are..

Hmm, that was bordering on artistic, I shall have to watch it.


I spent a long time up in the Top Dell [allowing those pics] because I was being played for a silly bugger by a couple of pesky sylvias. First to show was a little job with a grey head and brown back which did not have the chestnut coverts of the expected Whitethroat. Nor did it have any kind of streaking [so not a Dunnock, the default brown/grey bush bird]. In fact, what was visible looked very interesting, but of course having showed briefly it vanished into a bush and never appeared again.


It was in here;

The Green Wall

Part of the Top Dell

You see the problem?


Bastard bastard bird.


While I was spending a couple of merry hours waiting in vain, another sylvia decided to pop up. This one was big and grey. Naturally you first look at the head for the black cap. Not got one. Hmm.. It too had showed for a few seconds in a bush and then vanished. Not the same bush, of course. That would be helpful.

After a while the big one popped back up and flew up the Dell and away. This is expected behaviour at the Nose. Fortunately I was able to get bins on it as it passed. "Very grey! Male Blackcap or more. Yup, no cap, quite a fierce face, nice stout bill, but a bit short, very white utcs.'
So, the world's greyest Garden Warbler. That white undertail is the real clincher.
I have never seen nor heard tell of a GW that was so grey. I mean, they're supposed to be olivey browny on top, fairly homogenous and boring, with that little grey shoulder the closest thing to a 'proper' marking. This one was not even slightly browny, let alone olivey, and very two-tone - more so than a male Blackcap - and generally wrong. A bird like that makes me wonder about hybrids, I tell you.


I went back when it quietened down and stayed until it got dusky, but of course not a twitch of the other sylvia. Hmm.


Plus side, loads of bats!! Both days they were out well before it got properly dark; 1920 onwards. Lots of feeding, some chasing, all along IMD and right home.. :D

Now, identifying bats on the wing without a detector is pretty much impossible. Not that that stopped me! You get a rough size, you get a flight action, behaviour, the early ones even gave colour [I love my bins]. Ok, it's still 'possible' at best, but I reckon there were [Common] Pipistrelles and probably a couple of Serotines. Maybe.

Whatever they were, they were wonderful to watch, and so hard to track with bins! Even the [probable possible might have been] Serotines, which were prone to gliding, were utter gits to track. They're right up there with Downy Emeralds, I tell you.

Oh, it was brilliant!




Yeah, he's finally gone batty...




[[Oh quit complaining, you were waiting for that one]]