Odd Weather; Default Setting

RANT WARNING: This post contains a certified rant. To avoid it, please scroll down to the pretty birdie. Thank you.

 

With a low sat more or less on top of the Southwest, NE wind and thundershowers were forecast. Seawatch? But it wasn't anything like gribbly enough to a) keep the chavs down at the Nose and b) drive birds up Lyme Bay to the Nose. 

So what to do?

 

Like the title says, default setting; go to Prawle.

Things started... Not well. The money-grubbing wood-destroying hypocritical travesty of a charity that laughingly still calls itself the national trust had extended its privatised parking scheme to the Prawle Point car park. Yes, I mean the 'pay by phone' thing.

Anyone who's been there will be laughing quite hard right now.

For everyone else, I should say the Prawle is notorious for being utterly without phone signal. You have to go a mile plus back up the road to East Prawle village and then maybe, if you stand on a bench by the phone box, you might get a signal... 

 

 

Perhaps we can also restate that it's not exactly fair for people who don't have smartphones, who don't carry a credit card around with them, and who will not pay £72 to join an organisation which sells woodland left to them to protect, to a developer who has stated they will destroy it [and build an estate of 90% unaffordable houses], instead of the local community's crowdfunded campaign, [and that's just ONE thing].

[Insult to injury, they put the price up by 50%. Of course.  Well, it's not going down, is it?]

Ahem.

"Laaaa!"

Ah, that's better.

Where was I?

Anyways, the wind was NE with gusts in all directions and squally very heavy showers interspersed with general murk. Interesting?

Actually, not that bad [though very grateful to have Big Bumbleshoot with me!]. Though not exactly epic numbers [that could be seen, I needed to find a lower spot, mayhaps; though I was very loath to risk moving once esconced, I can tell you].

Flowers proved the only things practically photographable. [Ok aside from showoff Cirl Buntings.. :) ]

Cornflower and English Stonecrop

[a bit soggy...]

Musk Thistle

Oh, you want some numbers, things seen flying past?

In four hours [all W unless stated];

Gannet  24

Manx  41

Manx E  12

Guillemot  3

Razorbill  4

Common Tern  1

Med Gull  2

storm petrel sp.  2

auk sp. [prob Puffin]  1

shearwater sp.  1

Swift E  2

GBB  4

Shag  10

Cormorant  1

Yes, I was counting Geebs and Shags.. [Well, I got curious]

Those storm petrel sp. are just that. Passing in the leading edges of different squalls, on the views I got I couldn't even rule out Leach's.... [But white rump patches, so Swinhoe's is out at least... ;) ]. Prob Puff in same circumstances, and that shear... I think might be a drop. It looked horribly grey, no saddlebags, was Manx sized but the flight action was off...   I'm trying not to think about it too much. I'm sure it was just a funny Manxie. It's always a funny Manxie.

Speaking of.. yes, that's about 1 Manxie every 5 minutes. I suspect I missed a few in the murk. [[Understatement award]]

It was worth a try, and the Cirls were lovely.

Be Seeing You...