Rain. Fungi. Sounds Like Yarner.

Go to Yarner, get rained on.

A lot.

 

 

Thus it was for many long years. Yarner and rain just went together. You got soaked.

Then things changed [mostly]

So it was with some actual surprise that Sunday week [bit behind, sorries] I took an amble there with the Folks and oh boy did it heave down on us. 'The odd shower' was forecast. Well, we had a shower and, odd thing, it lasted two hours....

Ahem.

Did get some nice funguses - at least before my camera got rained to near-death... - a very few of them [focussing kaput] are not blurry, even.

Amethyst Deceiver

Because I love a purple fungus.

And because [all together, now]

IT'S ALWAYS THE DECEIVER!!!!

:D

Ok, not always. Here are a few non-Deceivers;

False Deathcap

These [and their White variant] were all over the place, clearly loving the conditions this year.

 

 

Far harder to find;

Azrael

So very, very white...

Speaking of Terror;

Honey Fungus

[All gardeners flee screaming into the night....!!]

[[But they're so preeeeeeetty]]

 

 

I resorted to a lot of flash, what with all the lack of light and everything. This sometimes had some interesting... side effects;

With

Without

[Cortinarius uliginosus, I think.]

Hmmm...

Bitter Bolete

Trooping Funnel

Shaggy Scalycap

Scarlet Brittlegill

Birch Brittlegill

Blotched Woodwax

Blackening Brittlegill

Common Puffball

Hairy Curtain Crust

There were birds. Sometimes.

Lots of Marsh Tits on the feeders, with showy Nuthatches and GSWs, and a couple of Mandarin on the reservoir.

When the rain finally got bored, it was rather nice.

Be Seeing You...

Looking For Yearticks [And Lifers!] In The Right Place

After an ohsomerry week at my actual real job of work, while slackers others saw dozens of Ouzels and hundreds of big shears - never mind all the Sibes....... - I was Very Good and wandered over to the Nose on Saturday morning.

I even got out the door before sunrise [le gasp]

I'd had Redwing parties over at work since Thursday, and it continued, with 49 Redwing, 19 Fieldfare, and bands of Woodpigeon, Goldfinch, Siskin, Linnet, Mipit, and possibly [might have been locals] Greenfinch overhead. All going West and likely in/off. The Firecrests were vocal in the same spot as the previous weekend, and I passed 5 tit and 'crest bands, though none felt very showy.

At said Nose I ran into the Teacher, who'd had the same idea. He went down to overlook the South Side while I went into the Top Dell [whose entrance is rather tricky for the be-scoped].

Neither of us had found much, as the weather forecasters had lied when telling of sunshine and lighter winds..

Then, 'oh look, the Pallas' has been seen again at Berry Head'....

As said Teacher needed Pallas' Warbler full stop [and I not only needed it for the year but had only had one sighting - 11 years ago! - of those wonderful little things] it was a no-brainer.

Twitching time!

Spoiler alert;

Pallas' Warbler!

No, really it is.

It is.

Look at the great big black eyestripe, see the rump; that's no Chiffie!

Ahem.

Yes, that is the only shot I got that even hit the target.... It was not helpful. Hours were involved, with the bird popping up wherever we weren't [it was also pulling this game on the Great and the Good, so just a naughty bird, not anything to do with us]. Eventually we staked out the right bit, and it duly popped up where I was watching.

Even better, it stayed put while all present shifted over and got on it.

:D

Never stayed still, though.

Not even slightly.

[To be fair, they don't.]

It was in this, when I got eyes on;

It is in there!.

 

Somewhere...

Zoom out a bit

Handy habitat within

bird retaining structure

Berry Head quarry

Also at least 5 of these knocking about the place,

Ring Ouzel

Continuing my long tradition of getting posing Ouzels who are nontheless utterly inseperable from Blackbirds....

[I did have many of Devon's Finest stood right by me as I took this, looking at that very bird and going on about how well and close it was showing... My fecking camera...]

Also annyoingly mobile Blackstarts and assorted bird-scaring raptors.

Anyways, two yearticks for me, and a Lifer for the Teacher [tart! 😛 ]

Hmm, hey Teacher, we're at Berry Head, you have The Artefact [::Ominous chanting::] with you, why not have a look at the sea while we're here?

Oh, hello 3 Great Shearwaters!*

[Lifer 2]

[Sea tart! 😝]

Ahem.

😇

Let's have some better photos, shall we?

A couple of fungi's

[Iodine Bonnet]

Gotta have a waxcap!

H. reidii

With Pallas' I have now matched my total from 2020 [year of the Great Aborted Year... Oh and some plague thing..??]. I'm still a probably ungettable way behind my record, but well, maybe if things start appearing when I can get at them [It's a frickin' Pallid, now... Arg. ] you never know??

I shall, I hope,

Be Seeing You...

[[* There is currently an unprecedented {for the date} influx of them in the area. For example, 450+ off same Head on 26/10. You'd be delighted and amazed to get that off 'Gwarra in August, normally.....]]

Looking For Yearticks In All The Wrong Places

'Two Scaup at Beesands' had me sallying forth, the day after a good long hard look at the Nose [in nasty windy but not good enough to seawatch conditions] got me.. Well, yeah, you remember down there ::points to post::

Anyways, Beesands was...Sunny.

This is October?

So there were at least 15 Tufted Ducks - juveniles and moulting-out-of-eclipse birds - and these two prospective juvenile Scaup. [Also a few other bits and pieces I'll get to]

They were... Unhelpful.

Very very unhelpful.

After hours [yes, hours] this is the best pic I got of the least tufted duck there;

Well, itsa duck...

Black restricted to nail [how much of nail impossible to tell], head shape - especially bump on rear crown - a wingbar clearly divided into white inner and grey outer, and general 'offness' next to Tufties made this one look rather a lot like a Lesser Scaup. [I ought to also say it was more or less Tufty-sized.!]

BUT I never got the proper clear close view I really wanted. Always distant, always mobile; that shot taken through reeds from the seaward side of the Ley.

One thing I am certain of is that there were no [Greater] Scaup present!

Oh well.

Itsanother duck

[or is it?]

Viewing never easy, with the light being unhelpful, too.

I suspect the 'other' one is a Tufted with bill damage, or possibly some Scaup [of some sort] genes, as it looked more like a 'funny Tufty' than anything else.

 

I'm just glad I'm not writing the rarity form...

Now this is a view I could have used,

Pintail and Gadwall

See how well those little diving buggers could have behaved?

Ahem.

I gave the sea a go, as The Boss had had Big Shears rain upon him from Start Point the day before, and, well,

What a co-incidence!

I got a large shearwater spp. - too fast and in too much gunk to say which - and a Manxie before the rain set in hard. Nothing passing close, even the Gannets were well out...

Oh well 

[again]

Worth a try.

Here's something which DID behave,

Chicory

Foiled again,

but that's birding.

[And you have to check. Look. Look again....]

Be Seeing You...

We Interrupted Our Delayed Posting... Pt.2, Play It Again, Swan

Having gone a' twitchin' up to Meeth, my tales of swanny goodness were so good that the Folks decided that for our next day out, they'd like a look at the place, too.

Not complaining, here :)

Glenfiddich's new model

Nope, no complaints at all!

What a beauty!!

Red Deer

A lot of evidence just lying about on the ground, also;

Roe Deer, Backward Birder, Red Deer

Oh yeah, a megamega white thing was still knocking around, too;

Whooper duper

I am also required - on pain of getting "A fas' full o' beek!" - to include this, er, 'friendly' individual, who mugged us for flapjack bits...

Begbie Robin

Unphoto'd but of note, 7 Redwing over west. [RND proved elusive, but I didn't take the Big Scope along, so he might well have been off the far side]

Selfheal

Common Centuary

We spent the day ambling around, generally enjoying the place. More time and more eyes led to more funguses being seen and yes you know what's coming...

Lilacscale Milkcap*

Birch Brittlegill

Beech Sickener

Giant Funnel

Oyster Mushroom

this

that

and

the other

Also these

You know what this one is...

Phew, whattalotta fungi.

Some of them ID'd [maybe even correctly..] but be honest, how bothered are you? Unless you're really interested in fungi, that is - and then you'll a) already know and b) still be sniggering at my thinking that that one is that... - so maybe I'll just leave those as is.

[Complaints and corrections Requests for more identifications on a Comment.]

If you're really unlucky, I'll put more up... [Yes, I have more]

In the mean time, I shall

Be Seeing You...

[* Similar, more common spp. ruled out by being with Birch, not Oak or conifers.]

Patch Posting. Sometimes It's Bad, Sometimes It's Less So

In which I open up with something nice;

"Put that camera down..."

One of two together along IMD, on my way home from a rather disappointing Nose [again...] [[With - just to rub it in - at least another at another spot further inland :D ]]

Far worse follows,

1cy Blackbird,

hit glass

A frequent visitor to my skygarden, quite possibly shown in earlier plumage in a previous posting, too.

The window responsible [communal area] now has the last of my UV stickers, but, well, stable doors and so on....

:(

With the grim news out of the way, back to proceedings,

Count the Oyks!

[There's more than you think]

Sandpiper Purple

[One of two present]

Razorbill, 1cy

Sea Mayweed

Seabirds have been sporadic and light, well they've mostly been when I've been at work [actually, they've mostly been off Spain...!!!]. Land birds just haven't been.

Apart from all the Firecrests, obviously

O:)

Here's a moth, as I've given up updating the old moff post;

Vestal

And a spider. Because it was sat on my car looking cute;

Running Crab Spider sp.

More will hopefully come when [if...??] something happens..

Be Seeing You...