A Fun Post

You know what's coming, right?

A very fun post containing fungi from about the Patch. Also some moffs and so on [because].

Shall we get on with it?

Dusky Puffballs*

Amethyst Deceiver

Fairy Inkcap

Armillaria ostoyae

Sulphur Tuft

Ok, time to get waxy

:D

Snowy

Blackening

Parrot

H. persistens

Butter

Vermillion

Heath

Crimson

Goblet

Those of you with a sensitive disposition can stop now, as next we have a moff or two.

I should note that I have suffered for these pictures, and have actual scars to prove it.

Oak Rustic

Udea fulvalis

Juniper Pug

Also

Black Laceweb

Hibernating Harlequins

Bird service will resume shortly, with a Little post about gulls and so on...

Heh heh heh...

:)

Be Seeing You...

[[* Yes, this post is a load of balls. {As are my IDs, quite often I suspect...} ]]

Birding Backwards Again. Pt.3, Wait, Is That...?!?

Getting all the way back to the 20th, and I was for once able to drag myself to the Nose in the morning [late morning, but we'll take what we can get].

I ran in to a couple of The Irregulars - one leaving, one arriving - to hear best bird on site was a Med Gull.

Oh well, try it anyway, right?

The bushes were indeed pretty sparse, and the sea wasn't great either.

But I did find the odd thing.

 

There was some movement, with a handful of Skylark and the odd Mipit and alba Wagtail overhead. Bird of the day [and possibly month] went trolling North, passing behind the Ore Stone. Took me while to twig what the 'Wait, that's not a Shelduck' was. Bit too long, perhaps, but I had it all the way through and it eventually dawned what those big white wing panels and dark splodge on the head meant; Egyptian Goose!!!!

[Why the excitement for what is a bare feather's breadth above a Canada? Only a Patch Tick, that's why!] And they breed in Devon, too.

I did not get a picture, so you're spared the horror of that.

Let's get to the title for our first photo, though it isn't exactly a fancy thumbnail image;

A dragonfly, hawker type,

but which one??

This was coming up the Rock Path, on my way out. Pausing at the Wryneck Bit, I happened to look up at the right time to pick that out buzzing about above me. Never had it but from below; an olivey browny smallish hawker with a straight abdomen and no visible blue on said. No yellow markings on the thorax, and a greenish tint to the eyes [only saw them from below].

All of which you should see from that photo, I hope.

 

I did hit it again,

Sharper but backlit

It went into the Sun and I lost it.

All in all, it looked horribly like a Vagrant Emperor.......

Big call, not exactly brilliant pictures.

Bugger and so on.

Earlier, I had a far better-shot first for Patch insect;

Vestal!

One of many 'I really want to see' moths. Just sitting in the grass on the First Slope.

Continuing the insect theme,

Sometimes

hoverflies

will behave.

Mr Kestrel

Keep sifting the gulls...

Every now and again, someone will

wonder why there are so few passerines

found at the Nose, and why those that do

show up bugger off so quickly.

 

Behold.

Hordes of frothing Robins + multiple escape routes = no Magnolia Warbler for us lot.

At least there are always Rockits.

Keeping on keeping on, as and when and so on.

[I do have some half-decent pics from Home to show in the near future. Also moths. Oh dear...]

Anyways,

Be Seeing You...

Birding Backwards Again. Pt.2, If At First You Sort-of Succeed...

After a weekend largely lost to my tricksy head, another mostly taken up with my inability to get going [I'm still blaming the pills] saw me only getting moving on Sunday afternoon.

Still, better than nothing and I tried a variation on the week before [seeing the way things were going, it seemed reasonable]

This time I took the closer but far [far far far] busier option of Emsworthy.

[The fact that The Teacher had been there in the morning and had 20+ Ring Ouzels had bearing on this whatsoever]

It was indeed very busy and I had to make quite an effort to find somewhere to even park, then walk back in.

Oh well, at least it's a nice spot, right?

Just the odd berry

on the Hawthorns

I wasn't expecting much in the way of birds to still be about, with so many people, but I am glad to say I was wrong in this, though until the vast majority of the hordes departed, the poor thrushes were pushed about all over the place, and so very hard to see well [let alone for long]

Later..

How many Ouzels can you see?

They won't sit still while you zoom in, the buggers.

The first Ouzel

Closer Ouzel on deck,

later on

Ring Ouzel and Fieldfare

Just hitting it with a bunch of Ouzel shots...

I have many more, but I'll stop that there.

Of note,

Mistle Thrush and Fieldfare

Redwing

Song Thrush

All 6 thrushes on display, and it's not often that a) you can say that and b) that Ring Ouzel outnumbers the rest put together!

Fieldcraft used on Fieldfare

[if only the sun hadn't gone

behind a cloud...]

Also

Just

one

or two

fungi on display

All very scenic

I used the tried and tested tactic of finding a good spot and waiting quietly, and once all the fieldcraft-less and fungus thie foragers had gone, it worked nicely.

Also a lovely spot just to sit and enjoy. The [alas heard-only] Golden Plovers weren't bad, either. Or the very low-flying Grey Heron, which, seen through trees, had me going as a possible Barn Owl [ahem.. You had to be there]

And finally...

The Black Rabbit of Inlé!

Be Seeing You...

Birding Backwards Again. Pt.1, They're Heeeere!

Being on Nights and actually getting my act vaguely in the region of together, I patrolled the Patch this very afternoon, seeking amongst the leafy and far too well off bits for what I could find sheltering inland a bit. Such as the slight slight teeny tiny possibility of a Yellow-browed Warbler.

I didn't find one, of course.

Or anything else much sexier than a Nuthatch. Not that there's anything wrong with Nuthatches.

I got down to the Real Living Coast and defied the far shootier-than-forecast wind to check for, well, these guys;

Purple Sands!

Adult and two juvs, note differences in plumage and bare parts.

Lovely!

Also, in a more sheltered area, 8 of these;

Peckconcretes

[You can't turn it]

[[I'll get my coat...]]

Ahem.

There is a Nuthatch

in the photo.

Really.

3 Oyks, 2 Mute Swans, and an alba Wagtail, but nothing other than the odd gull messing about in the big SE swell.

As it's all Autumn and so on, here's some funguses.

Shaggy Inkcaps

And finally, this down at the Harbour,

Yeah, really.

There is a sign already [out of shot to the left] saying 'Don't fish on the inshore side'. They then added the lower sign, right in front of you, so to speak. Then put a bigger sign above it, with a picture for the hard of reading. Now they're bolted a fence in place to block people off from fishing in the one place they're not allowed to.

You just know someone's going to be casting around that corner.....

Be Seeing You...