A Grand Day Out

Readers of a more twitchy nature may be aware that this winter this li'l country of ours has experienced an influx of orangey things. These are otherwise known as Eastern Black Redstarts [P. o. phoenicuroides]

One of said EBRs has holed up [sorry, couldn't resist] at Mousehole in cornywall and I have been tempted, oh yes.

Then the mighty and famous [or is that infamous?] Bun texts me and asks if I'm up for it? Silllllly question!


So, Saturday saw us meet up and wander off westwards. We have a plan and everything.


It's quite simple: Turn up. See bird.


Which bird?

This bird!

Eastern Black Redstart

1w male

K. Hale ™

It was a bit soggy when we got there, having had an argument with a wave...

More papping, this time from yours truly;

Not always on the beach

I have many more but will control myself.

It's gorgeous, shows beautifully, and, well... WOW.

Ahem.



Also on show was this fellow;

OOOooooHHhhhh

EBR in the bag, we moved over to Penzance in the hope that the Pacific Diver would be as helpful.



Scanning.


Scanning.


Drat.
12 GNDs [including a really sneaky young one with a pale bill and dark culmen combo - looked really thin unless seen against land - and a habit of holding its head so its throat creased like a chin strap...] and a nice RTD. Not a sniff of the PD. There were these things, though;

The sandpiper of consolation

With the sideways drizzle eating visibility, we gave up after a mere hour, took our dips on the chin, and moved on to Longrock to look for any of the vagrant gulls that kept being reported.

Scenery [its a legal requirement];

The beach turned up nowt more than a Kittiwake and a reasonable intermedius candidate, and Longrock Pool itself.. Well, there was this Thing.

Look away now if you Fear big 'orrible ugly gulls.......

Big and Ugly...

"No pictures!"

Arg...

This was... a bugger. Didn't look right for anything [even 'weird Herring', which is the standard default]. Some sort of horrific hybrid? [But between what??] I'll probably get back to this in a future post. [[Start running now...]]



The thing having done one - neatly when I wasn't ready to shoot it - and nothing even vaguely Kumlien's-like having arrived, we took what was left of the daylight to Hayle, where the Green-winged Teal was being a little bugger, too. Fortunately, an ordinary Teal gave it a thump and it turned around from its arse-on hiding pose..

Gotcha!

Bun the Eagle-eyed then pointed out that it had what looked very much like a darvik ring on its left leg - covered in mud, naturally. It would be nice if anyone has seen it with clean legs and could maybe find out?

EDIT: The latest Palores* has said that a 1w male GWT with a ring arrived on the Hayle on 10/11/16, but nobody has been able to read the ring yet!


Bad light - not to mention some lovely thick fog - stopped play before we could get to the Dozy Lesser Scaup, but we headed back feeling pretty chuffed with how we'd done. [Sadly not Chough-ed, though..]

Bye-bye!

Be Seeing You..


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