Hordes Of Lovely Migrants..

..Well, a few of them anyway!

So, this morning I defied the sunshine and grockles to get down to the Nose and see what might be. All those ickle birdies from everywhere else can't be missing here completely, right?


For a while I wondered.


Not that the Nose was quiet;

Standing room only

And the weather was fine;

Complete with forecast overnight cloud cover

But I persisted, and, while there were a few warblers about [a Garden and a few Blackcaps, a Willow and a few more Chiffs], the real interest was above, with two groups of Yellow Wagtails; a ~15 [they got into the sun before I could get a full count] and a 3+. Also a trickle of Swallows, a Mipit, and a few finches.

After a Wryneck run failed [what a surprise], I resorted to the sea. I could only find one point of interest, a nice stern trawler hauling her nets off up the coast. I fired off a salvo at full zoom in the hope I'd get something, and was shocked to succeed;

Can you see it?

Answers on a postcard.


With time passed on a bit, I made a Wheatear run, and scored!
Lookit!

Wot yoo lookin' at?

 

 

"Look, I'm an Issie!"

 

 

At least 2 along the Sole Rocks, and then on the South Side scree;

How many can you see?

 

 

At least 7 more. Most notable was this modest fellow;

This is my good side

 

 

This is also my good side

 

And a juvenile finds out it can always get worse;

 

 

"I have to fly across that?!?"

 

 

 

 

After all that loveliness, I can't resist lowering the tone somewhat;

Sunbathing 'beauty'

Juvenile Raven

I had to mess with the image a bit, which is why he looks so brown, but that's black[ish] things in strong light for you...


I'm not going to bitch about all the lazy..  Ok, that's already doing it, but you know what I mean. Instead, here's a picture of some scenery.

 L-R; Black Head [dolerite], Longquarry Point [limestone]

behind Longquarry, Petitor Point [limestone, with scoop of a quarry in it]

past Petitor* the Permian clastics at the base of the South Coast Sequence

And yes, some geology! Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!

There will be more.


Sooooon.


But for now, here's a noisy Nuthatch;

Nightingale schmightingale!

Then I got home, and found where all the warblers had been hiding.. In the Lime Tree across the road! At least 8 [and that's only 'sure of at one time'] assorted - many nicely yellow - were nipping about hammering the aphids and flies. Not a hope of a picture, with rapid movements and intervening leaves.
I stopped and watched them for the best part of 10 minutes before they moved on. This is what migrants around here tend to do - filter rapidly inland to the big gardens and woody bits you can't get at. Sometimes you get very spawny and intercept them. All you can do is smile. Which I did.



Be Seeing You..




[[*Technically over Petitor, as it's a palaeomountain**]]
[[**Limestone formed in the Devonian, uplifted in the Carboniferous, eroded into a hill then buried by sediments during the Permian, now re-exposed.***]]
[[***You can find bits of Devonian limestone - even fossils - that were exposed in the Permian and stained red by the desert conditions in the Permian rocks.]]