Back To The Birding

Soooo, Sunday. I actually dragged up at first light to see if the forecast had been accurate vis-a-vis the overnight front-thing dragging into the AM and thus giving a shot at something on the sea.

It was sunny. Not windy.


I may have said some rude words as I went back to bed.



Later it was just windy and cloudy enough to foil insects without being good enough to keep the hordes away from the Nose. I did useful things and may have muttered a bit.


Then I thought 'achtohellwithit' and tooled up.

Default useless weather setting applied; I went to Prawle.


As I was leaving the heavens opened with a deafening roar as about a quarter of the Atlantic dropped on the Patch*. The streets were rivers, the manhole covers bubbled up like pretentious postmodern water features at some OTT chelsea show garden.. I nearly turned around, but then I thought better of it. Maintenance Of Aim and all that.


Getting there to find things hot dry and sunny [though reassuringly windy] I may have muttered a little more, but I got into the car park [I'd had doubts] and went up to a nice little spot [if now a bit leaky in the rain] and settled in to see what came by.


Very soon I was treated to a lovely Balearic and I did grin happily.

There followed a lot of bugger all. There were Kitts foraging off the Point all afternoon and into the evening [as I had no constraint other than daylight - nights have their uses] and a few Gannets passed, with the odd Fulmar and the very odd Guille.

After 5, the Manx passage suddenly woke up and in a little over 2 hours 90 went west and 33 east. Not enormous numbers, but a few stayed around to fish with the Kitts and in the strong low-ish sunlight they were a sight to see. Very brown-looking! Worn but not moulting [as you'd expect] they were, well, look at the Yelk on The Boss' twitter and they were a bit like that..!
I certainly enjoyed watching them**.

I also kept an eye on the various Kitt parties as they worked their way westwards, and eventually this paid off with a 1s Little Gull amongst them [score!].

A smart adult LBB, a Turnstone [seemed to be local rather than passing], and a couple of swifts out/over were also of interest.
A Large Skipper skipped past me and landed just down slope at one point, tempting me to go down after it. It was sat happily out of the wind and let me line up a photo... right until a half second before I hit the shutter. Little bastard.


Yes, it was quiet [well, passage-wise - I had the euros on the radio!] and I even counted Shags and GBBs [!] 5 and 3 - they were not evident at all! I also had a look at Gull Island, where I could see 17 cute ickle fluffballs on legs.. Aww.


Best land bird was on my way out, as a local Little Owl deigned to show itself [only my second there].


Time for pretty pictures;

You'd almost think it was Summer..

Bolt Head and Gammon Head

[and yacht heading for Salcombe]

It was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon and evening. Even when there weren't passing Manxies [which was most of the time, true] there were always the yachts [seemed to be some sort of race on] - and the ever-lasting "They called it what?!???" game*** - and other passing traffic. No cetaceans, despite nothing with a motor about inshore of the shipping lane [[joy]]. Perhaps this survey ship was banging about with an active sonar??

This is awful mostly due to the haze.

Honest.

Be Seeing You..




[[*Ok, something of an exaggeration there, but it did rain VERY hard]]
[[**Nothing like a good bit of practice with the standards when they're doing something naughty to help you if you come across something else]]
[[***Never ceases to amuse, today they ranged from 'Right Choice' to 'WENIMBI'............]]