As per standard, not a sniff of the Solstice Sunrise at the Nose [one day I'll see it!], and indeed all day. I saw a few distant sunbeams in the early afternoon, but general grey murk was the Rule.
The sunrise itself was marked for me by a party of 10 Ravens passing by*. With the help of the Big Scope I did more counting, with 262 Guillemots on the Ore Stone, 61 Gannets fishing inshore of said Stone, and 3 Kittiwakes with them. 2 GNDs were on the sea and all four flavours of raptors put in appearances.
It being a day to celebrate, I decided to go twitching geese.
[Normally a recipe for Madness, but that's the past and I wasn't chasing a yearlist this time]
I also hadn't been to the Otter for an age and was curious to see how far they've got with the unshackling of the river and de-farmification of the restored floodplain.
But mostly I was after these;
European White-fronted Geese
Multiple White-fronted Geese
Quite a lot of
White-fronted Geese
Now, all the reports say '34 European White-fronted Geese' but counting them? Not easy with rushes to hide behind [never mind their friends!] and ditches to duck into. [[Who bothers to, after the finder? Me, that's who.]]
Being patient, getting towards persistent, I kept at it; counting and re-counting one way and t'other and eventually caught all 35 in one pass.
Wait a minute....
35?!?
That's not right.
So I kept going and after assorted 32s and 28s and so on got two more 35s.
Was I hallucinating or is there another one?
I'd love to have a photo of all 35 in one shot, but with the scenery and the range I can't [yes, they were too close... Oh the iron-y.....]. That ditch you can see; always at least one in it, head and necks visible when birds looking up, through scope, but not on camera screen.**
I suppose it doesn't make a great deal of odds either way, to be honest.
After a wander upstream to look at the other WIP bits, I headed to the hide for a little lunch.
Or rather, to where the hide was. FFS and so on.
All I can say is I hope it's going to be replaced, and not by something the RSPB's brainless 'architects' designed....
But the platform it was standing on is still there, and while I'm not tall enough to get a decent view, there was at least a view. Also, I was out of the rather toothy wind, and nobody wandered along to annoy me, so I got to go through gulls and ducks and so on in peace.
Gulls. Assorted.
Gulls, more.
The light wasn't ideal, but if you're interested in gulls you know what I was looking at and if not, you won't care. o:)
While on site I went through all the visible wildfowl for vagrants and found exactly nothing - not surprising - though I did count a not inconsiderable 370 Teal [that's an exact count, btw] also 5 Shoveler, 2 Goosander, 6 Brent Goose, and a lone Lapwing. Plenty of other spp. about, of course, with Redshank, Little Grebe and Fieldfare just 3 of them.
Let's have something a little closer-to to end with;
Dirty Curlew
That Lapwing
Did I mention how much the Otter rocks? Views like this are not uncommon and worth the price of streams of mundanes passing as you try to bird. Also the reason for said views. [Parke and Dippers anyone?]
Right, enough of this, on to Part 2 where- well, you'll see.
Be Seeing You...
[[* Yes I do and one comment will get it posted and then won't you be sorry :p ]]
[[** This paragraph tracks to me, but probably not to anyone reading it cold. In other words; I could pick them all through the scope, but not photo the whole flock at once, see the whole flock through low-zoom camera, but not see when all were visible; and probably not resolve them all at that magnification either. Clearer?]]
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