What do you need? What can you get?
I needed Bittern, but the one shot [involving being a long way from home before sunrise] needed reasonable weather for a shot [and only a shot] at success.
Hmm...
I needed a couple of scarce seabirds, which were possible even in late December, and the weather was.. Well, wind, maybe even rain....??
I also head the usual issues [and yes that was a typo, but very Freudian so left in] and Life getting in the way of birding as it does..
So I was cradling said head when a Leach's Petrel showed for an amazing time [45 seconds or so is a long time for a Nose Leach's. Really] for The Teacher and not jumping up and down cackling next to him..
The head cleared before dark and I legged it over, in sheer futility.
No petrels, but the Goddess smiled and there were dolphins;
Angler, "Well, I'm
not getting anything else today..."
GNDs: "You think you're worried?!?"
Zoomed in [a bit]
"..So you just bite the fish and
leave the hard bits alone, see?"
"Yes, Mum"
[[Note For The Humourless: Dolphins don't nick fish off of lines - unlike certain Grey Seals! - but the pic went there, so I had to follow. Thank you]]
Closer GND,
last effort from the
old camera
But there was one day to go.
New Year's Eve,
New camera arrived.
Not as good a frontal system as the day before, but, well, what can you do?
6.5 hours from Glonk Corner, plus a good check about the slick and Hope Cove on my way out is what.
The Teacher joined me for most of it and The Artefact ::Ominous Chanting:: duly Summoned another storm petrel - this time a Stormy, it seemed - but I couldn't get on it. However, Its power was not exhausted and as I finished a chat [on the phone, he's far saner than us] with The Veteran, I heard "What's this tiny thing on the slick??"
Oh, that'll be a Grey Phalarope....
Showed - agility incarnate as it dodged around assorted gulls - for about 5 minutes before vanishing as we - having legged it down for closer views - searched in rain vain.
This is the best I got;
Left of centre, nearby gulls
are looking at it
[it's head-on and almost impossible...]
Yeah...
There were other birds [now where did I leave that notebook?]
GND 6 [plus 8 S of the Nose and 11 N of it for 25 total]
RTD 3
Fulmar 21
Gannet 257
Kittiwake 198
Auks [mostly Raz] 242
BHG 87
Common Gull 24
The Grey Phalarope was present from 1210-1215
[Teacher's Stormy at 1040]
GNDs in Hope Cove,
from IMD on my
way back
So 2022 ended with nightfall - I kept prowling about in hope of a Hume's or something because why not - and my personal total for Devon of 240.
Not my record, but close to it, and far better than I could have hoped for at year's start. Chasing a yearlist is a daft thing to do, but it does get you out there and lead you to birds and places you'd likely never see otherwise.
I will do it again, but not in 2023!
Anyways, now that's done with, you can probably guess what sort of post is sadly incoming...
[[Don't bother trying to run, I've already locked the doors and electrified the window latches ;) ]]
But until then, I shall as ever
Be Seeing You...
[[Ah, for Leach's, Wryneck, and Bittern.... Oh well, that's birding]]
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