Only Mad Dogs And Seawatchers Go Out In The Noonday Storm

Bert by name, frisky by nature. Sunday saw me able to get myself together in time to get out and see what was going by [sometimes backwards].

[[Now there are those who say you shouldn't go out in a weather warning, but this was only a Yellow, and it was very necessary for my mental health to do some seawatching, so we'll have no more of that]]

I got to the Nose not long after sunrise and was surprised to find absolutely nobody else there. Not even a Bass angler?!?

"No stamina, folk these days" mutters I as I manage to get down without being blown off my feet to Glonk Corner; well out of wave range, perhaps a little too out, but you can't have everything.

[I'd include a nice scenic shot to show you the impressive swell, but google still blow goats, so what can you do?]

I gave the sea 6 hours, though the last was more 'I don't want to get soaked packing up' than 'birds are still going by woo'. Then, having seen The Teacher turn up, I wandered over to find him cooing over a nice array of divers and scoter in Hope Cove. I didn't fancy climbing down into the Quarry, so I looked back over the Slick, where only common spp. were about [not even a Med. Tut.] and thus was looking the right way when a couple of Sandpipers Purple were kicked up by a wave.

:D

 

I got the odd photo, so go look at twitter [or bluesky if you're allergic to people you don't agree with] to see a couple, look at The Teacher's for better quality images of divers, too. More may well appear over the next few days, but not of birds so much.

This, having no character limit, is where numbers go, and you're expecting some, yesno?

Hope so as you're getting them.

Glonk Corner, 0810-1410

[All S]

Gannet                        227

Kittiwake                   544

Auks [Raz bar 2 Gu]  134

Little Auk                    1 [poss 2nd]   0855 [0908]

Fulmar                        29

Great Shearwater*        1     1026

Sooty Shearwater        2    1010, 1029

Manx Shearwater        1     1026

Shearwater sp.             1     1023

Bonxie                         1     0957

GN Diver                     2

Swallow**                       1    0919

wader sp.                     2 groups [heard only]

C Scoter                      14

Com Gull                    19

BH Gull                      31

LBB                            7

4 more GND on the sea, including one which flew in from the N. 12 more GND, 1 RTD, 3 C Scoter in Hope Cove so full totals are;

GND         18

RTD           1

C Scoter     17

Hourlies;

G  20, 59, 31, 76, 16, 25

K  191, 156, 78, 81, 23, 16

A  22, 43, 9, 34, 20, 5

F  3, 16, 8, 1, 1, 0

Spot where the front came through, the wind turned and eased, and the heavy rain started.!

All of the good stuff was in the leading or trailing edges of the vigourous if not feisty squalls that were a feature of the morning. Rain never really hard in them, but enough to hit visibility.

The Little Auk[s] came through on the Manx line [second was a very small auk, but I couldn't get enough on it in the gunk to rule out 1w Puffin], the shears were all outside it and seemingly angling out into Lyme Bay. The Bonxie came through inside the Lead Stone, which is why I got a half-decent picture. It was small and slight and dark and I confess I got a bit interested, but photos showed it had no wingmoult and a hint of rufous to the mantle, so just one of 'those Bonxies'.

One day.

A very rewarding - in variety if not numbers - watch, though I was really hoping for at least Little Gull if not a Leach's coming into the slick. The SWBCM was working all day, with lots of gulls always in attendance, but I guess you gets what you gets eyes on.

Be Seeing You...

[[* In late November?!? Climate change, people.]]

[[** Questioning its life choices, I suspect...]]

Autumn Afternoon

An Autumn Sunday afternoon by the Dart with the Folks and Sister the YoungerYounger was very pleasant, though with two Whisthounds it wasn't always peaceful.!

Though with chews of distraction employed, coffee and barmbrack went down well, and a couple of Dippers and a Goosander showed nicely, too.

As we were climbing back up from our spot, 2 late Swallows went over at treetop height; it's not quite Winter yet!

[Though with the drop in temperature today, you do wonder...]

At Home, it was 2 for 1 on Nuthatches on my feeders on Monday afternoon, with 3 Great, 3 Blue, 2 Coal Tits, 2 Dunnocks, a Robin working on getting at the newly re-positioned sunflower and pellets feeder [moved to foil Woodpigs and Magpies] while still trying to beat up the Great Tits.! [This was simultaneously; busy busy!]

Eyeing the forecast with interest..

Be Seeing You...

Halleluia. Sort of.

Dragged myself up and out and had a go at getting a better view and maybeevenyouneverknow a photo of the Pallid Harrier.

I failed.

I did succeed in getting a very nice view and even some grainy photos of the male Hen Harrier that's been knocking about the area, from The Pulpit [which is a stone circle, as religion in Devon goes back a Long Time]. Thus the title.

Amused, aren't you?

A flock of 11 Redwing were going to be the next best thing, but a Dipper gave me a flyby as I loitered about Cadover in vain hope of a last minute Pallid perforfmance.

I'd not been up Trowlesworthy Tors in many many years, so that was nice, too.

And nothing fell off the car this time, which was a bonus.

Be Seeing You...

Three Up North

After a slight delay due to technical issues [when bits fall off, you need to get them put back... Ahem] I was able to go filthy twitchin' up North.

Sandymere at Northam Burrows is basically a big puddle between a car park and a shingle bank. Not exactly the sort of place you'd expect to find waders, what with all the dogs running around.

But this is perhaps what's so appealing to the White-rumped Sandpiper that's settled there. Being a yank, it's pretty bomb-proof and just flies over to the other side when someone gets too close. More regular waders wouldn't tolerate anything mammalian within 30m at absolute least. So the WRS has the place and all the food - and there clearly is a lot it's finding - to itself.

This also means you can, with very little patience, get very close views indeed.

A  far better state of affairs than my last and only other in Devon, my view of which was largely a white arse flying off never to be seen again!

Ah, if you could see my pics. But gaggle still suck, so. ::shrugs::

Go look at various sightings sites, or twitter feeds.

I allowed myself a celebratory fried egg sarnie* at the caff [nice but pricey], tried a quick seawatch [epic fail], then headed over to Fremington, to seek out the first Slav Grebe in the county this year [what is going on?!?]

I had to toddle upstream a way and troll out over the sands [with care, I've seen SLAS], but it was there and lovely. The Glossy Isbis was visible on my way out along the Pill, so I stopped and zapped it immediately, as while I didn't need it for the year [remember? I got very soggy and cold and also a Green-winged Teal], there are principles.

Rewinding, and during my trip up the A361 - after I got off the duke but before I got to the Temporal Distortions Of Dooooom - I was very creditably able to keep driving in a nice straight line when a Short-eared Owl went overhead!

 

I'd been considering trying for one in the various places in t'North you can sometimes find them, if time permitted, but this was quite convenient.

Not very convenient, as then I would have been able to crash stop and get a picture or two for Over There, but you takes what the Goddess of Birding gives in Her wisdom.

So, three in a day and I've broken 230.

Result.

Be Seeing You...

[[* Not just a yeartick, but actual unequivocal photos, too!]]

Flurry of Goodies

Still place-keeping for now.

Normally October is the month for rares, but it seems the shift to November [and the clocks going back to where they should be] has had an effect.

It got to be a 'which do you try for?' yesterday, but with a Devon Tick versus a bird highly likely [as I thought] to get flushed off by hordes of dogs, that was also half the distance away, it really wasn't such a trial.

Unlike trying to get to and then find the darned thing.

A similar story on Friday with the Rosey Starling - allegedly at Whitford, certainly in a vast mass of regular-flavour Starlings roosting at Colyford Common/the Black Hole - where I could have just sat down and waited.. Ah well. Exercise is good for you, and all birding is worthwhile.

Reader, on my way back, having given up that the Pallid Harrier was anything other than a fly-through, and walking a different way back out of bloody-minded propriety, I flushed it. Got a lovely if very brief view of that spectacular arse [look at the photos; orange and white and dark and woooo] as it zipped off over the brow of Ringmoor Down [that's where it was all day; asleep in the long grass on a lee slope.].

Photo? I barely had time to get to get bins on it and start swearing.

Of interest,

The White-rumped Sand is still showing today, I understand. Despite being on a pool that is literally next to the car park with nothing to keep anyone off it.   Go figure.

Friday.  If I get my car fixed in time [Oh yes and that's another story]

Be Seeing You...