Frenzied Sunblasted Madness. [He's Still Yearlisting, Isn't He?]

After getting far more than expected [or deserved; I was not there at first light.. Tut.] at the Nose on Sunday morning, I was straight off upcountry shamelessly chasing yearticks...

Oh Dear.

 

States of tide, time of day, and numbers of grockles dictated one site to head to;

 

The only water west

of the Exe...

Exmister lagoon, still just about present. Now with extensive muddy fringes. [Oooh] With some of said wet stuff just about visible between the blocking trees, overgrown vegetation, and wandering coobeasties.!

With about 90 mins of patience [and lunch, which helped with the patience];

Spot The Curlew Sand...

Also [and real eye of faith, here],

Spot the Wood Sand..!!

Much easier through a Big Scope, of course.

Eventually, Wood Sand, 2 Curlew Sand, Ruff, and a scattering of Blackwits with Shoveler, Teal, a couple of Wigeon. Mostly Sand Martins hawking, and the odd Cetti's still doing That Thing.

 

With the coobeasties were visible 4 Cattle Egret, see?

One, two, three, four.

Something flushed a Snipe, which came towering almost overhead, but no Big Sexy Raptors blessed me with a view.

The frothing hordes - I had to wait to get a space to park... - kept mounting, as did the heat, so I called it a day and retired to some shade.

[[20:20 hindsight should have seen me press on the the Black Hole - which I did consider - but the roads were not fun and there was some event on. Always tomorrow, right? Ho ho Ho....]

An afternoon toddle with the Folks the next day left a free morning, and Little Stint had been reported for a couple of days on the Black Hole...

I zipped over [[well, I tried to zip over, but so many fools on the roads...yeeeesh]]

View from the 'Cygnus'

Neither Little

nor Stinty

The Dunlin Game;

"One of these birds is

....just like the others."

Bugger.

A smaller, brighter Dunlin was the closest anyone got to a LS. Likewise, the previous day's LRP was gone, with this

[not so little] Ringed Plover

Standing in.

Best bird on view?

Spot the Greenshank

Yeah.

Also neatly showing the difference between a reserve where actually seeing birds [and providing useful habitat year-round as a wonderful by-product*] is considered, versus... Well, whatever it is the raspberries think they're doing.

Ahem.

It was lovely to be there, run into a certain Bicycle Birder again, and I sincerely intend for it to be far less time until my next visit [profiteers be damned].

Hopefully something small and sexy will be there too. 

 

You never know, right?

Argh, dipping sucks.

[[Yes yes, I know I got outrageously spawny the day before, but still.....]]

More to come.

[There Will Be Bloo Moths.  Heh heh....]

I shall

Be Seeing You...

[[* That probably ought to be written {and certainly was the intent} the other way around... Oops. ]]