Lateness Hath Its Own Rewards

The weekend after the First Yelkouan Thing [which may or may not be a Thing, who knows?!?], there occurred more weather of a wet and windy [well, sort of] nature. Due to assorted Circumstances [I have quite a few of these at the moment, but what can you do] Saturday early morning wasn't really on the cards, but the forecast seemed better for early Sunday anyway, with stronger wind, gunk, and the benefit of sustained weather. Well, in theory and if the forecasters had told the truth..


Yeah yeah, I'm Charlie Brown and the Met's Lucy....


Life truly got in the way anyway, as after doing some things in the morning, my head laughed diabolically and that was that until I could finally get some sleep on, oh technically Sunday.

I woke naturally not many hours later [accursed bodyclock adapting to dayshift alarm times] and was delighted to not be in instant codeine-proof pain... and so could do nothing but scoot down the Nose.



I got there in time to start at the Steps [new spot] for 0600 [plenty of West in the wind allowed it] and almost at once the sun came out. The sun supposed to not even show a sniff through drizzly rain before 0830... FFS.

But also came a shower, some clouds, and, while not vast numbers of birds [all the terns were at the Warren, for example. All of them.] I got variety and best of all quality. The fact that only 2 floating islands were present may well have helped in this matter.

It's art.

Now, the good news for you is that almost all of the passing birds of interest were waaaay out. Big shear range or further. Think the far side of that there cruise ship, peoples. That far.

Two Balearics and a Manx used the Manxie line [just outside that there bigger island, folks]. Of interest, while the classic Balearic was in the heavy moult you'd expect at this time of year, the darker 'Sooty-a-like' wasn't. Clean wings. [Ditto the Manx, I now have to specify*]

Nice looking weather thattaway

So arty shots of scenery and no horrid blobs I'm claiming are birds. Aren't I kind?

Speaking of birds...

Balearics 14
Manxies  19
Sooty 1
'not Yelkouan so don't start' shearwater sp. 1

And!
Common Scoter  3 [north]
Arctic Skua 1 [intermediate morph, almost a LTT-marked bird but definitely an Arctic!]
Gannets  291
Fulmars  2
Kittiwakes  8
Med Gull 1 [looked adult or close to it, but well out]

Compared to 8 days earlier, perhaps a slight drop in Balearics, a rise in Gannets, and huge drop in Manx numbers. This with fewer ships and birds mostly passing between them [those visible, anyway. Anything outside the tanker would be borderline to invisible, depending on sun state]. Absence of terns and fewer skuas probably not a co-incidence?

On my way back up the slopes, I came across a few things which were photographable, and definitely easier to get on that a zooming Sooty or looping shear sp...!

Soldier Beetle

7 Spot Ladybird

Skipper 1

Skipper 2

Skipper 3

Some say you cannot seperate Small and Essex Skippers in the field, but you just look at sex brand [curved in Small, straight in Essex] and antennae tips [chestnut in Small, black in Essex].

Isn't that all clear and obvious, now? :)

Comma

Rock Sea-lavender

Rock Samphire

Greater Knapweed

[unusually pale one]

Greater Kanpweed

[regular flavour, plus Red-tailed Bumblebee]

Creeping Thistle

Sea Aster

Tufted Vetch

Restharrow

Restharrow

We'd better stop there..

[More assorted stuff coming on a patch post]


Be Seeing You...


[[* Non-breeding [failed, too?] Manx can be in moult in July. This is important as a grubby moulty Manx is primary Yelkouan-a-like. {Assuming you know what a super-pale Balearic looks like...} Ahem.]]