It's March, isn't it? [Well, it was when I was doing all this, anyways...]
After a weekend largely spent about t'Patch, hunting for and finding Wheatears! [Yay] and a first trip up onto t'Moor, I switched things a little and got on with chasing yearticks.
One in particular had been nagging for a while, with multiple dips, oh yes.
If at fourth you don't succeed and so on...
Bunch of foreigners
;)
An early start paid off as I finally caught up with the oddly-slippery Egyptian Goose! This one had a wash, then went back to hiding behind that lump with the Cattle Egrets on it.
Right, that's that done. Onward.
And upward.
Devon countryside
['scuse the glare, light issues]
Sat at a viewpoint and did some skywatching, to the serenade of assorted farmland species, including Yellowhammer [thin on the ground these days] and Red-legged Partridge [pulling the usual 'so close but you can't see me, ha ha' routine]. The Sun was warm and it was really quite the contrast from recent times. I maybe lingered too long, but maybe not. Time served really helps with waiting for birds to fly past, and a coffee turned into two, as they do.
I did see birds of a soaring as well as singing nature, and not all Buzzards, either. Highest flyer was a North-bound Cormorant [yes, really], but star bird a Red Kite [with kettle of gulls], well off to the SE.
The only bird close enough to photo, however, was this noisy character;
Not quite what I was
looking for.!
It was very nice there [though the erosion - lots of rain and no cover crop does that - was less pleasing], but I dragged myself away and relocated to somewhere even higher..
t'Moor!
t'Fieldfare
Still that glare issue
Dark clouds and bright Sun good photos do not make [unless you get said Sun behind you, which is a bit limiting]
The wind was a bit frisky, but I got out of it and things were lovely. A long [if a bit late] lunch and lots of Buzzards [again] but no Merlin or anything like that. [But you puts the hours in, you know]. It was great just being up there.
Siskin, between
display flights
Catching up with
the Laughing Man
And I went up
Bellever Tor
Three yearticks were good, but a much mellower Backward Birder was even better.
And there was still more time in my time off to come.
:)
Be Seeing You...
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