Patch Post Three

Originality in titling, thy home is here.

Ahem.


Right, time for more Fun About the Patch. Sunday saw me up early and out here there and everywhere in a futile [oops, sorry for the spoiler] search for a nice Willow Warbler. Having had one of the most reliable spots for a singing WW demolished by the wonderful powers that be [TCCT, I'm looking at you. Again.] didn't help. I have no doubt there is a reason for this, perhaps more justifiable than the ongoing attempts at Whitethroat extinction at the Nose, but will I ever know it? Does anyone care?


Well, I'm going to stop ranting and get on with it - eventually you'll see what I mean, at least as much as a photo can show.

So;

Perhaps not fall conditions

But there are always gulls

And Guillemots

[spot the Razorbill(s)?]

Once upon a time, 

these were the most-used ledges

The colony core

Heh heh, and you thought Herring Gull shots were bad...

"What. Ever."

"No, no, I'm a smith, really I am!"

Erosion happens:

Slip on the South Side

Still some Blackthorn

[for now]

Hey, fast-moving flying over!!

What's that bird?

Answers on a postcard.
[Or down there if you want to cheat]

Art students been at it again

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I headed off and about the Patch, covering here and there, and seeing a few non-migratory signs of Spring while I was at it;

"Nah, it's definitely too big"

Spot the archaeology

Would be easier with lidar - though it's hardly a Mayan city, I admit - this is the Walls Hill entrance, smothered in that green-flowering stuff. [Yes, I really need to do better with plants...]

Not everywhere is covered with vegetation, as people have been busy;

Cleared area, north side of Walls Hill

This used to be a really good spot for passing Willow Warbler [they'd sing for a while, but I've never had proper signs of breeding]

They meant business

This isn't a new thing, as you can see from the stump up there, but this is the first time I've been there with a digital camera and time to play with it.

Looking down

And here is the exposed cliff edge; the concrete pillar on the right is where the fence ends - previously buried in an impenetrable copse - so you can just take a big step if you're not aware, or a dog chasing a ball.
Ho Hum, I'm sure HSE will be putting up a 6' fence soon, won't they? [Yes, this is the point; I'd prefer trees guarding drops than fences. Wouldn't you?]


Ok, enough of that.

Let's have fun stuff;

Base of section

This is the bottom of the wonderful continuous series of deposits running eastwards [right here] along the south coast, including the 'Jurassic Coast'. The Devonian limestone of Petitor Point is a palaeomountain - exposed in the Permian and reburied by new sediments - and to the right the sediments begin with hot desert upland fringe deposits - mountains inland with flash floods and landslides delivering periodic pulses of material onto a lower flatter area, which sometimes is covered by shallow water.

Look there, right of the limestone;

Conglomerates

[with climber for scale!]

Sand- and siltstones

First posing butterfly of the year!

The Ore Stone, the Nose,

and Longquarry Point

And that sky.

Devonian limestone,

plus a nice fault

Here the strata are dipping strongly away and to the left, the fault [not surprisingly] corresponding to the kink in the shoreline, shown nicely by the dark grey bedded rocks compared to the pinky massive strata above them [and the orangey bedded layers above that]. The rocks are also dipping more steeply on the other side of the fault, showing there's been rotation as well as lateral movement [which implies relatively small blocks*]


Yes, I did better at rocks than birds, but what can you do? I did get flown over by a Yellow Wagtail, which was great, but I really really wanted a Willow Warbler. Yes, for the Patch Year, but they're just so lovely. Oh well.

More posting, including where I took more drastic action than ambling about the place on a nice sunny-ish day, will follow.

Also pictures looking up, including raptors both in and out of focus, and yes, another feederfest. Oh dear.


Be Seeing You...




[[*Perhaps the size of a large building, or maybe small mountain - this is geologically small! :) ]]
[[Oh yes, that bird. By the jizz - especially flight action - I thought 'raptor' when it shot over, and went for the camera in case it was something good. However, the picture shows it is clearly a Cormorant. Why it was not doing Cormorant flight action I do not know, but there you are.  Much time has passed, and I am still amused.]]