Birds And Rain.

Lots of birds.

Lots of rain.


So I went off to the Exe to amuse myself in the 'sunshine and showers'.

Hmm, well there was a brief hint of what might have been approaching sunshine in the morning, and the showers were more like variations in degrees of it pissing down..

But lots of birds, oh yes.


I started at Matford, where I was hoping to get a decent [ie. under 1km] view of the Ridgway's Cackling Goose. Unfortunately, said goose had other ideas and proved elusive. I did see a lot of other birds, mostly for the first time this year [isn't that nice?], and most notably a frickin' YBW*!!

This was during the bright bit, and it was feeding busily along the little hedge past the footbridge by the thatched cottage**. It then moved into the trees by the viewing area [with the benches and Lapwing bike holders] and off towards the main pool.


Thoughts of waiting the Cackler out were banished by large amounts of water falling out of the sky. There being absolutely no shelter, I retired first to my car, then to Bowling Green.

This was a Good Idea, as a full-on hard core frontal system duly piled in, with sideways rain and everything...


Bowling Green was [like everywhere else] rather damp. Observe, regardez...

Someone left the tap on..

There were shedloads of wildfowl. As I ended up staying longer than planned, I eventually cracked and  started counting. I did not count everything, life is too short and there were too many sodding Teal.. There were too many Wigeon too, but as I was looking to refind the AmWig, I figured what the hell. Counting in 50s, I got to 2300. That's just 'in sight'...

Those dots are all ducks...

230+ Shoveler. 14 Pintail [they flew in together], 2 Pochard, 4 Tufty, 210+ Canada, 13 Greylag, 10 Avocet [they came in for the front and left after the worst of it], 2 Grey Plover, 2 Snipe, 9 Shelduck, 1 Spotshank, 2 Greenshank, and finally; 750+ Brents over towards the Exe from Dart's when I arrived and 350+ Blackwit when I left [with a lot more coming in].

Speaking of finding the AmWig..

He was feeling fairly elusive himself..

Unlike the Spotshank.

Or the Wigeon,

Many of which came in very close.

Eventually I moved on to Dart's Farm, [after finding nothing on Goosemoor. At all.], where both Brambling and Cattle Egret got away, but the Kingfisher showed very well. Loads of finches and corvids around, plus a handful of winter thrushes.



Keeping count but not chasing [::cough::] I'm now over the ton, which only took a week longer than when I was trying.


In other news, I managed to lose the nut that holds my sunflower feeder together down the drain.. Fortunately, we still have a local-ish hardware shop where I could take the lonely screw to get a nice shiny new one. Yay.

In better news, a flock of 67. Yes, 67 Goldfinches were lurking in three trees when I got in from work on Thursday.. Wowzer.




[[*Probably. Possibly. Ok, it had all the visual signs of being the Other One, but the bastard didn't call once. It did ignore my attempts at YBW and take note of my woeful HW, though possibly only to double-take then laugh its undertail coverts off...]]
[[**Apologies to all of you readers who are unfamiliar with Matford Marsh reserve.***]]
[[***It could be described as a rushy pond-come-flooded field in the angle of a large roundabout with a cycleraceway around it..]]