Drastic Measures. Also Revenge!

And I didn't even need ninja training.

Ahem.


So, after another Attack Of the Mutant Head Of Utter Doomy Doom And Despair. Also Pain., I got myself out chasing birds on Sunday with determination to do something OTT. With the female RCP so beloved of yearlisters seeming to have done a bunk from Saltram [nr Plimoth, btw] to parts unknown*, I decided it'd need to be the Hard Medicine..

So, back up to the Taw/Torridge for the second time this year [gasp].

Wrafton Pond was shockingly quite easy to both find and access, and looking through the first gap in the trees from the Tarka trail...

Ding-ding-ding Jackpot

Yup.

:D

Males are something else. Especially in Devon males. :)

When they're awake, anyway..

Photobomb by a nice 1w Goldeneye

"Who-wha-...huh..?"

Regular flavour Pochard came much closer

Wrafton Pond

Little Grebe plus unlucky Stickleback

A couple of local lads were on site, and we had a merry old time shooting the breeze and trying to shoot the Pochard, despite the briskness of said breeze.

But eventually I decided to move on and find somewhere to sit down..

For some reason I found myself taking a slight detour.

The long and, er, not so winding trail

Yup, back at Fremington. Where there was, despite a very thorough search, no sign of the Isbis. But there were some birds;

Redshank

Greenshank

Spotshank

:D

Curlew

Shelduck

I did not neglect to look up when seeking the isbis, and while I didn't find it, I did find something else in the roost site;

Cattle Egret!

:)

Which cheered me up quite a bit. So, I toddled off estuary-way to see if the isbis was lurking out there [unlikely] or in one of the muddy fields [possible].

I found..

Mud

Common Gull

Mud and gulls

Very small section of a flock of mostly BHGs - with Commons, the odd Herring, and at least 3 Meds - on Home Farm Marsh. It may look green from this angle, but trust me, mud...

Collared Dove

So, getting dusky again, this time it was still light as I drove back down the pill, keeping an eye on th- GOTCHA!!!

Glossy Ibis!!

With attendant Little Egret

Very Glossy

Another scenic route home again failed to get me a nocturnal flypast, but hey. Keep at it.

A long way to go, but some good birding [despite mud and attacks by barbed wire...] and revenge is always tasty. :)


Be Seeing You...