Not quite the week I was expecting, let alone what you'd expect if you'd known in advance what would be happening - ie. Isabelline Shrike and a great big storm - but hey, what can you do?
Work got in the way a lot, it's quite hard to be in two places at once, alas. As did checking sightings right before news broke about the Issy, then being busy doing things and not looking again until it was getting dimpsy the day after...
But I have been about the Patch a bit and I did get some seawatching in after work yesterday. Far too late for Great Shearwaters, let alone storm petrels of an unknown species [is that code for 'Wilson's but I couldn't nail it' or 'Leach's but..' or 'Something Else'..??]
But I got an hour in from The Mounds - having walked over with the Li'l Scope more in hope than anything else - and scored a lovely Balearic in the first minute! Things didn't go haywire from that, but eventually a Bonxie came trolling by, with a low but constant Gannet passage, a few Kitts [plus a raft cowering in the lee], 5 Razorbills, and a surprise 14 Med Gulls - including a group of 11! Nothing else, no petrels of any flavour, no divers.. Oh well.
Time to unleash a few pictures [oh no!]
The South Wind Doth Blow...
Juvenile Gannet in the sunshine
Awful shot of part of the Med Gull flock
Better shot of juvenile GBBG
Light body, dark wings!
2cy GBBG
Away from the sea, it's been lots of bush-bashing and ambling about looking at the assorted sheltered bits in hope of something interesting.
It's in there somewhere...
LTT. You never know what's with them...
...Pity they are usually the only ones that pose!
Stonechats like to tease
So this was a shock...
But look closer, this is a Stonechat with a mission; "Oi! Human! Get this bloody thing off me!"
So, has someone been ringing at the Nose, or is this an actual vertical migrant? Unfortunately, I can't get details off the ring from my pictures, so it's all speculation.
Autumn has continued in the same vein as I've written of before, with waxing and waning numbers of Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, plus assorted wagtails, pipits, and finches moving overhead. The grinding lack of rarities has been at least slightly assuaged by a flashpast Hobby. Also of note, the first Woodpig flocks, with 43 mooching about over Ilsham actually counted [gasp].
Lower down,
Devil's Coach Horse Beetle.
Does not like cameras!
Lesser Hawkbit
Probably Daldinia concentrica
Buzzard
Peregrine
Kestrel
What's this??
It's always a Buzzard!
;)
It's that time of year
When Ladybirds appear
Be Seeing You...
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