While I should have perhaps been off looking for achievable yearticks, I had Unfinished Business to take care of.
As you may recall, I am wont to go up on t'Moor every Autumn to practice my fieldcraft against the winter thrushes. 'Fieldcraft vs Fieldfares' and so on.
I have been out playing with thrushes [Emsworthy, remember?] but it's not quite the same as the proper unenclosed Moor. Also, I've not been Up for a while and you pine, you know?
Yup, Holne and the Mardle.
:)
The weather was not helpful. At all.
Hillscraper clouds and mistyfog reduced visibility to 30m or less, with only the odd patch of clarity for most of the morning. This is at or under flush range for thrushes - they are twitchy things, why they're good practice - so you have almost no chance to see and approach with care.
It being a bit late in the season, the berries were almost entirely stripped, with birds mostly foraging on the still very soft ground and so even harder to see and more cautious with it.
Added to that, my camera threw a proper hissyfit - I'm going to have to admit it's needing replacement - so shooting what I did find was, er, problematic.
Anyways,
Misty moisty morning
Very atmospheric and so on, also wonderfully quiet :)
Itsa Holly Tree
There were 12 Redwing in that there Holly, which I was carefully stalking, until whoooosh! off they went. Bugger? Oh look, nice female Sprawk came in from the other side.
Closest I got to a picture..
After working along Holne Lee to and around the upper Mardle, where I flushed a Snipe but found no Ouzels, I doubled back to the top of Holy Brook as the weather amazingly cleared up.
Lunch and a couple of hours of attempted vismigging ensued!
Ok, the visibility didn't last..
Small parties of Woodpigs, Mistle Thrushes, Siskin, and Greenfinch passed by, but it was pretty quiet on that front.
Closer-to, though,
GSW, foraging
in a small Hawthorn
at ~15m from me
Kestrel, hunting
almost overhead!
Close enough for me to hear the tap-tapping of the woodie and the Thump! when the Kestrel dropped on something [she missed]
Not bad..
:D
Even better was what rolled into my bin view as I was tracking an odd-looking thrush [I have no idea, odd-plumaged Fieldfare, maybe] down the Mardle, quite high up...
Oh I say what's that lanky raptor?
Thrush dropped, actively-flying raptor coming in near head-on and well above me [a good 100' up] suddenly shifted course and started gaining height. Long tail, long wings, slim body.. Kestrel? Wings wrong. Kinda browny, Sprawk? Wings very wrong, but oh look what else is there.. Adult Peregrine in the same airspace, not doing anything in particular, but the raptor clearly was 'Nope!' and got above it sharpish. And they were of a size.
Similar wingspan, raptor longer but much more lightly-built.
So, I thought very hard, how big is a Hen Harrier, really?
They give the impression of being Buzzard-sized, but, aren't they actually teeny?
I couldn't remember. And as this was no ghost-grey adult male, I was filled with [slightly embarrassing - I should know this] hesitation.
All this was going on above the horizon and upsun, and my camera was sulking, so you're getting nothing. I watched the bird gain height and head off west over the ridge, crossing north of Puper's.
Those of you who know [or have checked] dimensions will know that yes, HH is indeed about that size and a ringtail HH is what it was. So slim-looking I'd suggest a young male, but.. Well.
Anyways, once the cloud had closed in again, I went over the ridge of the moor to the back of Venford, where a gap in the gunk showed 8 Goosander and 3 Mallard on the water.
My camera would periodically work a bit at certain focal lengths, and so I got a few pictures of things that stayed put for the time I needed to coax operability. Sometimes a minute or more;
Goblet Waxcap
Vermillion Waxcap
Cedarwood Waxcap
Parrot Waxcap
Dacrymyces chrysospermus
Great Big Slug sp.!
Aside from photographic vexation [and the chap in the fancy black Hilux right up on Holne Moor; camera sulked so no proof, alas..] and a slight lack of numbers - understandable with date and weather - it was a very enjoyable time, with 6 spp. of raptors though only 4 thrushes!
Be Seeing You...
No comments:
Post a Comment