One Foot In Front Of The Other

Right then. Breaking apathy and so on.

After days of frontal wind and rain drove - at last - some divers and grebes into the area, I finally forced myself through the apathy that has blighted me last weekend. Bright and earlyish I strode off with a loaded rucksack - I need to keep in practice toting it for when I CAN go back on t'MNoor [I have learned the hard way not to disrespect my shoulders, remember?] - full of no picnic materials at all and so totally covid compliant*. It was damp, if not drizzly, reaching showery, and still windy in a SSW way.

Yup, the Nose. Where else?

 

I got a treat;

 

Wowzer!

 

So if you ever wondered 'Can Kestrels hover in the rain?' the answer is 'Yes, but they look kinda scraggly'.

 

And now we know.

["And knowing is half the battle!"   Ahem]

Also a treat of cetaceans, with 3 or so Harbour Porpoises hunting to the north, and at least 2 Common Dolphin zipping by south through the Ore Stone channel first thing. :)

No sign of the LTD [which I strongly suspect to now be tarting about the Exe, the hussy....], calls from the Blackstart hiding in the quarry, and the Glonk flying about in the now traditional manner.

Except, of course, when it wasn't;

Standing Glonks are far easier.

However, something had changed.. There were actual GNDs about!

About frickin' time too, and other comments. The visibility wasn't good and didn't improve, and none of them came anything like close, so you know what's coming, right?

Great Northern Divers

Almost a nice wingflap, there. This is the biggest group; 7 of them.

Three more

21 in all between Thatcher Rock and Longquarry Point, no other divers spp. or any grebes to be seen. Only low numbers of small gulls, either.

 

It was rather warm, quite the contrast from earlier in the month. Let's get a little educational, shall we?

 

Immature gulls!

 

With monstrous Glonk as size comparison, observe the variation in these 'orrible manky Herring Gulls. Just to make things even worse, the Dougal Effect may be involved. [And.. are you sure those are all HG?? ]

 

 

And to make up for that;

That Spring-y feeling?

Coming up, even more stuff! In which we find out what was daft enough to be trying to roost off Blackball and who was daft enough to try to photo blobs at multi-km range at dusk in the rain... [[Oh yeah, that'd be me, wouldn't it?.... Uh oh ]]

Be Seeing You...

[[* You can stand around for hours if you're fishing, with a tent, but you can't even take a flapjack and a teeny flask to keep you going... Sigh. ]]