Ok, so, last week I was coming down with the lurgy, but determined to do something while I could get out, I dragged myself over to the Nose on Monday afternoon [yes, on Nights again] and gave it as good a battering as I could in the circumstances.
Yeah...
The bushes were - as you might expect, especially in the pm - pretty dead, with a couple of Chiffs [but you have to look]. The only passing sealife was waaay out, though I counted at least 58 Kittiwake and a couple of Arctic Skuas annoying them [a light morph adult is easy at quite some range, though without the Kitts as handy scalers, I'd have had to be cautious and call them sp.].
On the Lead Stone, a fair number of Oyks were roosting, and rather than tell you, why not try counting them for yourself [Hint: there are more than you think]
Oyks on Lead
But the main source of fun was up above, passing the right way this time. Moving along the clifftop, they bunched - pausing to feed at a classic spot for it - and then moved in pulses, usually the mid- double figures.
If we go back to that first shot, I'll zoom in a bit;
Hirundines!
Zooming in more
Now from IMD
Hitting one that came low
enough for any
detail wasn't easy
Swallows, House and Sand Martins.
Very hard to properly count numbers, as they weren't making it easy, but easily in the hundreds and probably the thousands. It gave the feeling of a passage that'd been going on all day, though it wasn't the full-on continual stream that you get in truly epic situations; most likely birds using the lee of the cliffs instead of moving on a wider front.
On my way out, this less than happy chap was on top of the bins [?]
Speckled Bush-cricket
He looked quite a lot how I felt, but hey, maybe it'd clear up in a day or three and I'd be ready for what the forecast promised on Friday?
Oh stop laughing.
Be Seeing You...
[Though not for a while yet, still infectious]
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