No Dodgy Humour

There are birds whose namers, you feel, were extracting the Mouse. Just asking for trouble. Or just thought they were funny.

Certainly some spp. are very punny, and few more so than the lovely tropical seabird which has graced the shores of western cornywall and it seems a variety of other spots around the Channel; at the time of writing there appear to be at least four of them in fact! Which considered the whole First For Britain thing, is quite an event [[any crates from the Caribbean offloaded at Radipole recently?? ;) ]].

However, not too locally, as around here the only 'Brown Booby' sightings I've had are the odd spot-on Gannet clone [2cy birds can, on rare occasions show the exact plumage*. There's one knocking about this year - I've seen it twice now]. So I had to go swanning off to St. Ives Bay and join the masses. No, I'm not about to show you BoobyOnnaRock shots - the Goddess isn't that happy with me right now - in fact this is all the Booby stuff you get, as I'm talking about an earlier day when I did not go off to cornwall. [Oh you're all let down now, aren't you? Don't worry it's coming.]


So, instead let me tell you of a trip I made to Froward Point; as I've not been there for a while [seawatching anyway] and it can sometimes be quite good, especially when there are ten million grockles everywhere else...
I also needed to burn off some vexation, and nothing gives you burn like lugging full seawatching gear up that hill...

It was, as it turns out, almost as good as going to cornwall and seeing a WBW. Ok, not almost, but not awful. [Again, that one's coming later :) ]

So, Froward, home of the only seawatching hides on the south coast. I say hides, as they have roofs of a sort and some shelter from the wind. Not from a SE, of course, they're wide open to those, but if you can't handle torment and woe, you shouldn't be a birder, let alone a seawatcher.

Behold, Froward's searchlight bunkers;

Looking east

Looking south

Yes, that is Start Point

Yachts posed better than birds, as usual

Also Brixham Trawlers

POBTGOF

Flying the duster :)

Right; shearwaters, including three Balearic, hard to tally due to feeding activity but one group of 94 Manx came in from the north in a nicely countable line, and at 1635 I counted 50+ Gannet diving through a haze of 170+ Manxies, so a few about!
4 Arctic Skua and 2 Bonxie made life hard for the assorted Kittiwakes [50+ inshore in Start Bay] and terns - including 23+ Commic and 2 confirmed Arctic - with 3 Med, 7 BHG and 2 Razorbill passing southwards. Lots of cetaceans were feeding offshore; too far out for photos alas! Large group [40++] Common Dolphins came from NE, then several smaller groups [or the big one split up], plus 5+ Bottlenose Dolphin passing by south on a line outside SP, and 3+ Harbour Porpoise coming north from close in Slapton area. I'm pretty sure I had a blow out in the main feeding area [about 130° from Froward] but got nothing solid. Oh well.

Even better than all that fun - and it was hours of fun - was what was on shore.

Combine 'arvester!

No, not that! [Though clifftop combining is pretty cool]

This;

Hummingbird Hawkmoth!!!

Stationary and everything! I've never seen one even stop before, let alone got a sharp picture.. :D


Yes, I 'should' have led with that picture, but it's not all about advertising.

Be Seeing You...


[[*Except the rump crescent; every Gannet has that, even the ones that are straight across underneath.]]