Here And There

The Patch needed a good going-over, and with NE wind blowing and clouds in the sky, I suspected inshore birds might be the order of the day.

I circled the peninsula, with a few notables amongst a fair amount of ground covered for little on show.

[I wasn't surprised]

 

 

The Nose held two Irregulars, and after chatting with them, offshore I counted 7 s/pl, 4 w/pl, and 3 intermediate GC Grebes [so you were right, I did find more! 😁], but aside from Guillemots on the Ore Stone ledges and a scattering of Gannets, not much else.

 

I moved onwards to more sheltered waters, and found 5 GN Divers off Meadfoot, with a raft of 5 adult Kittiwake, and a lot of Shags and Cormorants. No BlackRed at either site, though. I stayed for a while, and a Harbour Porpoise eventually showed, heading NE, inland of the oyster farm.

The Harbour was not filled with sheltering birds, though a 1w GND appeared and showed at point blank range as it swam out of the mouth of the Outer Harbour, with another further out. On the rocks, 14 Purple Sand and 2 Turnstone. Off Torre Abbey, 3 Mute Swan and a handful of BH Gulls with the Herrings and GBBs.

 

 

 

Next day was sunnier, though not much less windy. I said 'stuff it' and went up on t'Moor.

I'd not been to White Tor for an age [pre-camera times, no less], and as it was on the lee side of the Moor, I figured 'why not?'

 

From Pork Pie Hill car park I headed up to Roos Tor, stopped for a cuppa and to enjoy the view, then over to White Tor for lunch. Ravens were knocking about with the usual spp., and Golden Plover were repeatedly heard, before finally a flock showed up and flew right over me in a nice [albeit not super neat] V. I hit them with the camera, and with the luxury of this here screen, there were 101 of them. 😄

 

I admit I may have been hoping for a nice Red Kite, or even [one of those] WT Eagle, but no dice [shock], but you do what you can do.

 

It was - when out of the toothsome wind - rather nice up there, easy going and what would have been great views if it hadn't been so hazy.

 

 

On my way home I stopped off above the Dart valley, where 53 mixed Fieldfare and Redwing were foraging in a paddock. While I was watching them, a Snipe was flushed by something and flew over me calling 'hetch!'. Two Buzzards had a prolonged go at what turned out to be a Crow. Woo.

Today I abandoned a planned Wild Goose Chase due to weather [ie. not being able to see it; I do not fear cold or rain {nor glom of nit 😉}] and gave the sea an hour from Meadfoot [NE wind]. I got 3 Gannets - plus a Razorbill on the sea - and resorted to counting Cormorants and Shags.

Cormorant  E  19

                   W  4

Shag           E   7

                   W  3

Gannet       E   3

BHG          E   1

C Gull       E   1

It was worth a try.

Ye Gods, I'm up to date!

 

What madness is this?

Who am I and what have I done with myself?!?

Be Seeing You...

Getting About A Bit

A few days off work [hours to use up, that sort of thing] saw me first visit heath and woodland in search of birds I'd not seen yet this year [that's keeping count, not chasing a yearlist, officer]. 

At a heathland site, Dartford Warbler was where I'd left it last year, while at a different and much woodier site, LSW was feeling unhelpful.

 

 

At Yarner Wood, the Marsh Tits eventually took pity on me and one posed quite nicely [well, once you got the camera to focus through all the twigs...], and a Song Thrush likewise was well-behaved. Other species were much naughtier, Redpoll especially...

 

 

A rather iffy day of weather saw me up on t'Moor, where perhaps the lack of other people saw a group of at least 18 Golden Plover on the deck in camera range even with the awful light 😁 . I was mostly there to recce a walking route for later in the year and to look at a triple stone row [not a double, it's a triple]. Pics will appear Over There directly.

 

[Perhaps a bit more directly, might have to annotate them. Once I remember how...]

 

 

And now it was time to get some miles done and hit the road. The Levels beckoned. A Baikal Teal was out there, with another Green-winged and what's this? Report of an American Bittern? Also another Isbis, Whooper Swans, and all the lovelies you get up where it's flat and soggy.

 

Tally-ho!

 

Well, it wasn't that soggy [areas closed off via removed bridges, not flooding, hmm] but the rarity-hunting proved a bit flat.

Yes, looking for tiny ducks in huuuuge areas among vast numbers of other ducks is never easy, but come on...

 

But it was rather nice. Started misty working on rainy, then later the Sun came out and it got, well, warm. Possibly even hot. What madness is this? [That'd be climate change, there, boy] 

I resorted to an actual iced drink [much to shock of café-folk "do we have any ice?"...], having had to walk two miles to find an open loo [thank you rspb, putting 'loos closed' up on socials after I'd pointed it out and been told 'oh, they've been out since saturday, I think, but someone should be here to fix them today'....]

Ahem.

 

Anyways, at least 9 Marsh Harriers were quite nice to see, with 4 up at once at one point. Bitterns were booming but unseen, the Whoopers were sitting about on Noah's, a few Great White Egrets were in evidence, as were plenty of assorted ducks.

I wandered about Ham Wall and Shapwick for most of the day, before fleeing the onrush of Starling-hungry mundanes to Catcott, where the Green-winged Teal did not show. [Day before, day after.....] But the Starlings did show, and were brilliant with the aid of optics [you could see the macroforms much better than when they're right on top of you] though not that far off; you could hear them, even there!

😄

An attempt to see a Barn Owl failed, but driving over backroad Levels after dark gave a surprise benefit, as Snipe started shooting over the road in front of me at hedgetop level, and That's A Jack!  😮😍

[Their shorter bills give a more balanced shape and they have more extensive streaking down the breast, so you can pick them in flight from below as well as above {crown and tail}]

A rainy day did not see me seawatching, but I did take time out of getting annoyingly necessary things done to hit Arch Brook on the Teign estuary. The pack of roosting 'shanks, when I found them, did indeed include the SpotRed. A Grey Seal came in very close on the high water, and further out, my first ever Teign estuary Goosander surfaced long enough to get the camera on her 😁

Another day trip out was to the North; Tamar Lakes, The Skern, Fremington Pill and area, and Bursdon Moor.

 

Things went a bit better, though as with last year, wandering out along the Tarka Trail caused it to rain on me..  This time I haven't come down with anything as a consequence, though, which is nice. 

Willow Tits are publicised at Tamar, though not always easy to see, and indeed it took more effort than I'd like to get anything other than Marsh Tit and frelling squirrels [where's a Goshawk when you want one?], but I scored in the end.

 

The Lesser Scaup at The Skern was another matter altogether. Pull up, get out, scan the inlet to the left, oh, there he is.

That's what you want.

I stayed longer than planned, cooing over ridiculously close views for a bird out in the open, and watched him dabbling for food right in the shallows "You're a diving duck, not a Shoveller?!?"

 

Tore myself away to head east to Fremington, walking back west in search of Isbis and Spoonbills [the Spotshank there was on the Pill, from the car, natch ]. I found a big flock of Linnet [~150] and a big flock of Stock Dove [14] [perspectives] after it stopped raining hard on me. Before that, the Glossy Ibis popped up from hiding in the same field it was in last year, and flew off low so I couldn't get a pic, the fiend!

I had to turn back for time reasons; no trek to the far side of Isley Marsh this time. And with the tide well down, no Spoonbills were in sight. Drat. Nor any Kingfishers flying by, either. Oh well.

 

Then Bursdon was almost a bust... Until a female Merlin appeared on a tree, way off over there. Nice views with the big scope, and I got a photo of sorts [yeek]. The trip home gave no passing owls of any kind [not counting calling Tawny at BM].

Day after, up on t'Moor with the Folks. Sunshine and wind; lovely in the former and out of the latter.

Another Merlin, but this time the Navy version.!

Few flocks of Fieldfare, and a surprising female Stonechat FF with a leatherjacket.?!?!!!? First week of February.

Huh.

 

 

More updating will be along, honest.

 

Ok, you know it will come, the fun part is 'when'.. 😇

Be Seeing You...

Left Then.

Continuing my updates, we now get to the fun times, as with a "Forth Éorlingas!", Storm Éowyn rode over the nation.

[You knew it was coming]

I got out of work and hit the Nose.

Admittedly, the timing wasn't ideal, but it was blowing nicely and so...

I gave up after an hour.

That hour did have 1300 auks [mostly Razorbills, as you'd expect in winter], 202 of both Gannets and Kittiwakes, 5 Fulmars, 1 LBB, 2 GND, 1 BTD, 1 diver sp.... 2 more GND and a GCG were on the sea ~80 BHG and 15 Common Gull were attending what was more flotsam than slick. Passage had pretty much died off by nine, really, though.

MP the Irregular arrived and we wandered over to Hope Cove, where 5 GND were on the sea... And oh, what's this? Another BTD! Which showed quite well, though never as well as the moment I noticed it right on top of us - of course it wouldn't behave, we had cameras - and in addition an adult Med Gull popped up on what was more of a slick.

Then, as I was going, I picked up a 1w RTD from IMD

[[Oh, so many initials.!]]

The next day was markedly calmer. I made plans, which were foiled due to my talent for turning my alarm off in my sleep [I use two for work, but refuse to when I'm off]

Still, I was going out.

I had vengeance in mind

Exminster was, well, still Exminster. The road was flooded, but I decided to see if my car - untested deeper than tyre depth - could do it. Yup, no worries. 

Now for some birds? There was no sign of the GWT, of course, but I worked my way down to Turf thoroughly, and prepared to check over the Exe for the inevitable no sign of the Long-billed Dow- oh, there it is.

Right on top of me. RIGHT THERE at Turf Lock, on the little triangle of mud between the mouth of the canal and the stream that drains Exminster Marsh; as close as a wader can get.

The Sun then came out, low as it was late in the day, and the views at 75x were breathtaking.

I even got the odd photo.

Still no GWT on the way back.

I stopped off - for the third time - at That Woodcock Place.     Time passed.

Woodcock!

A second, and low!

Third!

Get in.

And then we have Storm Freddie.

Yes, Freddie. F comes after E and before H. As does G, btw.

So the Spanish can learn the alphabet.

Storm Freddie, despite far far less fanfare from the media, was much friskier than Éowyn. The seas at the Nose were quite impressive [though I've seen better, and The Boss has seen the best; ask him about it]. 

 

The birds?

There were birds. There was also more seawatching. And rain. Oh yes, the rain. There was some of that, too.

The Teacher arrived just before me, but chose perhaps not the best position with a SE and serious seas. He gave it a while, then a while longer at Glonk Corner with me, before deciding Hope Cove might be interesting.

 

I gave it six hours, as patience and persistence and so on...

Auks 1158, Gannets 238, Kittiwakes 355, Fulmar 64, LBB 13, BHG 6, C Scoter 1, GND 2, Purple Sand 12, Turnstone 1.

3 GND and 1 RTD were on the sea offshore, 1 GND and the BTD were in Hope Cove, and 9 GND were towards Longquarry Point.

So only Fulmars and sea'd GNDs doing better than the Friday, really. 

 

I confess I did have hopes for something like Leach's Petrel, Grey Phal, or Little Auk, but that's birding.

Next time, we have my little winter break from work to go winter birding around and about and actually get out of the county maybe?

 

 

 

 

Be Seeing You...

Right Then.

Where were we? Oh yes, I'd been to Broadsands and gotten rained on, foiling hopes for a nice Sibe Chiff to add to not seeing the Red-necked Grebe...

But I had seen one or two nice things, though miiiiiiiiles away, naturally.

Anyways, the story continues;

Being on Nights, the next weekend started on Friday, and I was after Red-necked revenge.

The weather was not helping, but I wasn't letting that stop me. I nailed the RNG from Slapton Bridge, then advanced to the corner of Ireland Bay, where I got an awful photo of a rapidly-fleeing grebe and better ones of two of the three Goldeneye visible.

I didn't hang around; job done and I had other fish eyeing the pan worriedly....

Beesands Ley and the long-returning Ring-necked Duck saw me coming and fled for the SE corner. Too late.

While he cowered, I counted Tufties [33] and Gadwall [13] and had a bite of lunch in the warm and dry. I like hides.

Then I went out into the blast and did some seawatching [sanity? Not here, dears]. I was rewarded with 2 Razorbill heading north.   Oh well.

Strete Gate was hit, but in all three locations, no GWE were to be seen, let alone Bittern. Drat. Wind not helping, though.

Now what? 

Well, the Scaup eventually showed for about 10 seconds at Bowling Green, and I hit him [he's looking much Scaupier, now]. Also 1 lurking Snipe and a large group of possibly not quite so plastic as usual Greylags. And tons of the usuals.

[Yes, Topsham from Slapton. C'mon, it's hardly Shetland from Scilly, is it?]

Next day was far less well-travelled, with the Patch stayed on. There were 15 Purple Sands on the Real Living Coast, with GND and RTD offshore, but not a single grebe to be seen.?!?

Sunday saw a concerted effort to find Isbis on Exminster. I started at Countess Wear and headed down to Turf. Did I find it? Did I f-CENSORED BY GOOGLE-ll did I find it....

Ahem.

Isbises are surprisingly small birds and can vanish in a fold in the ground, never mind behind rushes or into channels, and Exminster has vast arrays of all three. Bugger.

I did spawn onto a passing Great White Egret; flying south parallel to the railway line between M5 and Lion's Gate. So that was good. Also got a few other yearticks including a halfway ok Marsh Harrier photo. Down at the viewing platform, no sign of male GW Teal, but a possible female - on the way back in the gloom, and hiding her rear end, but the front I could see looked interesting - was lurking close enough for a bad pic. Nobody else has mentioned, but then again, who looks for females? Or would try to claim one not in the hand?

Yeah, exactly.

On my way home it was dark enough to try for Woodcock at a classified [sorry] Woodcock site, but the clouds which had so darkened my Isbis hunt melted away and the fullish Moon blasted away. I got nothing...

Bugger again.

And we come to the Great Booted Eagle Hunt.

Ah yes.

Sleep is for sane people, said I as I went from a Night shift to the side of A30, not quite as far as Marazion. I missed the eagle by 15 mins..

After getting brassed off at assorted Buzzards and the Bootie not returning, I decided to go after it. As "It went North reallllly high", I went north to find something reallllly high.

 

Trencrom Hillfort is a petite but spectacularly-viewed place, and lugging a scope up the straight way was enough of an effort to burn off the vexation. A bit. Nine Ravens were a good omen, I decided.

Even more Buzzards ensued while I had some lunch in the gentle breeze.

Heading back, I missed the eagle by 5 minutes.

I didn't give up. I was resolved to wait until dark if I had to.

I needed only until 1355. The Booted Eagle appeared off to the East, cruised at rooftop level over a farm, and navished into 'its' Pines. It didn't show again.

But I got a photo!

And I got home without incident.

Result.

Little happened next day [I may have slept until the afternoon], but he day after I was out again.

Bramblings, Green Sands, and Eiders were visible but not helpful.

When I found the Ring-necked Parakeets waaaay up Maer Lane [of course I walked, it's not that far], they were more willing to be photo'd. Not super helpful, but you can see what they are without any eyes of faith.

I couldn't find the YBWarbler, but wasn't really expecting to.

Things weren't going too badly, so I tried Exminster again for GWT.

Nope.

I tried for Woodock again.

Nope.

::Bangs head against wall::

Monday afternoon and another trip to Exminster led once again to no GWT.

Mondays.

Birds.

Anyways, getting closer, and next time we will have Storms, Seawatches, and Superb Views!

[And not just of Blue Tits]

Be Seeing You...

Technical Issues.

Minor technical issues are currently preventing Backward Birding from updating.

Namely me.

[[Ok, gaggle are being irritating, too. Yes, I am me. Stop claiming I'm not to try to get more data out of me to sell, FFS]]

I will get to it - the blog that is, gaggle... ach, they can:CENSORED - [as in; get to this interface when I'm able to actually do something productive with it..]

Be Seeing You...

Getting On With It.

So, 2025.

Getting on with it.

The year did not start with weather conducive to a Glorious First [bugger], so I did some seawatching instead.

Three hours at Glonk Corner gave 384 Gannets, 138 mostly Razorbills, 150 Kittiwakes, 19 Fulmar, 4 GND, 2 RTD, 2 LBB, 10 Com Gull, 2 BHG, 6 Curlew, and ~8 Purple Sand

The Teacher, at the traditional spot, had much of the same, though he missed the Curlew. In compensation, he had a light morph Pom Skua, which - despite much communication - I could not see. It was like the thing was frickin' invisible...

Ahem.

Another day, another dip as I used time before work [oh yes, the 2nd...] to try for an actual picture of the Budleigh Salterton SnoB. I totally forgot he was now using the LORP itself and so failed. Bugger.

Another day, a trip out onto t'Moor with the Folks and it was two for one on 'orrible dogs. A full set of winter thrushes were seen, though none close for some reason. ::Shrugs::

With the weekend, it was time for Revenge, with a capital 'oh frack the east wind is cold'.

But with better gen and the favour of the Goddess of Birding, I found and photo'd the Snow Bunting. Then I went looking for a reported Velvet Scoter, finding out there was a reported Slav Grebe, too.

I did not drive over, as it was barely two miles and I'd already paid for parking. Walking is good for you, good for the environment, and you never know what you might see and hear that even a bicycle can hide. Like the Bullfinches in a hedge, the Water Rail in a reedbed, to name two. Yes, lugging artillery is hard, but we are required to make sacrifices in Her name if we want to see nice things. It's how it works.

The Goddess smiled and the Hare was beautiful.

:D

The Velvet Scoter was with a nice RTD. I was soon joined by a couple of Devon's Finest and we eventually found a GCG. No sign of a Slav, though. Oh well.

I took the coastal route back, and found Guillemots, Razorbills, Common Scoter.. But still no Slav.

Next day, back to the Nose, where 40 mins gave 33 Gannets, 3 Razorbill, and 2 Fulmar before The Teacher called me over to Hope Cove, where a very smart BTD was with the GNDs. Lots of GNDs were about, my final total was 24 [13 offshore {9 near Ore Stone and 4 inside Lead Stone}, 7 in Hope Cove, 4 north of Black Head] . Also at least 2 Harbour Porpoise close to Black Head.

Before work Monday pm I tried Broadsands for the reported RNG. No dice on that but totals of 14 GND, 1 BTD, 2 RTD, 13 GCG, 18+ Guille, 7+ Raz, a roosting flock of 153 Common Gull, and the Scoter flock with friend [~26] still way out towards the Nose.

Rain arrived before I had the chance to see if the Sibe Chiff was still about. I gave the marsh a go anyways but zip.  Drat.

Thus is summarised week one of the year. I will post about the next two directly.

Be Seeing You...

New Year Same Nonsense

And it's not even two weeks into the year before he gets something about it out, and that's just a brief 'Er, yeah, I'm getting to it' post?!?

What will you do?

I am intending to be more up to date and practical with this, and sort of link in with Over There, but when it will actually happen it one of life's little mysteries.

And I can't even give you pretty pictures to be going on with.

 

Except Over There of course.

An overview, at least;

I am not chasing a yearlist this year whilst still chasing yearticks a bit, sort of.

How long not chasing a yearlist will last is debatable, though the way things are going with missing stuff...

I think 'going after yearticks whilst not seriously chasing a record' is probably the best definition.

Looking for yearticks is a great way to get out birding and go to places you wouldn't normally, leading to better birding experiences.

I think I may have said that a time or seven?

Anyways, the weather forced an abandoment of a Glorious First [bugger] and while I did some seawatching instead, there were visibility issues.

I'll get to that.

I will find some time and write something. Yes, I could have written something useful in the time it took to write this, but you're not expecting sense now, are you?

Come on.

Be Seeing You...

Watching The Sea, A Post Of Last Year. Slightly Delayed.

Once upon a time, I was able to freely upload images to my blog. Then google [who bought blogger] decided that they wanted to make more money from me. Not being content with using this blog to train AIs [theirs and anyone wo'll pay them], using the metadata of it and all who look at it for everything they can get paid for [it's a lot], profiting from the IP, and I'm sure a whole lot of other things too. They wanted to put permanent software on my system; to monitor everything I do online [and likely also off], and I am not going to allow that. I erase cookies as fast as they are uploaded as a matter of principle; maybe I could erase these, but maybe not. It is that I don't trust them. It is that I know they are evil. [Definition; putting your wellbeing above and to the exclusion of others']

 

They do not seem to be backing down over this - as they have in the past - so I am going to put this, the partially-written post where it hit, up.

 

If you go to bluesky [I'm Backward Birder], you will see a pair of butterflies [er, when I find the images]

 

I am going to keep blogging, but it's write-only from now on. Here you'll get more talking, and numbers from seawatching, and boring things like that. Images on Bluesky [as they are still free to view, unlike twitter], though not as many as you'd have had on here.

Blame the bastards.

 

 

 Ok, to get on with it:

 

 

 

 

Not a great deal done over that weekend, oh so many many months ago, but I got to the Nose for a couple of seawatches, in perhaps not ideal conditions, but you take what work and weather allow.

 

 

In a shameless attack of clickbaiting, I am starting with a photo which I took after my second watch [and might tell you a thing or two about how this is going to go..] but I'm quite happy with it as a) the subject was a right git to get a shot of and b) it's the first one of the year I've seen.

 

Behold,

 

Small Skipper.

 

 

I didn't see a single one of these at the Nose last year, so it's good to know they at least haven't been wiped out. Unlike Whitethroats [thank you tcct, thank you so much for that].

And as a nice comparison, a Large Skipper was nearby,

THIS IS WHERE A PHOTO SHOULD GO, A PHOTO OF A LARGE SKIPPER IN SAME POSE AS THAT SMALL SKIPPER.

 

 

 

Getting back to it, two not enormously long seawatches in not exactly ideal conditions, but not awful, and it is THAT time of year, after all.

A 'few' pictures..

Friday.

Rain, yes.

Wind, not so much.

I got rather soggy. I almost got a good shear, but it got into the gunge just in time.

Best seabirds in pixels;

Guillemots and Kittiwakes in the

Ore Stone channel

Fulmar [R], Gannet [L], and

3 Common Scoter photobombing!

I did get 7 Balearics and 12 Manxies, but very little else aside from a wader sp. which stayed head-on then vanished. Bugger.

But you keep trying [once you've dried out, anyway]

Sunday seemed to promise more wind and lots of nice chunky showers in a little sunshine...

Ho ho frickin' ho.

😧

Yes, I went over despite all the sunshine.

Give it an hour, maybe two if there's birds.

Ten minutes in, I'm tracking a diver through that glare there, and well right of the Ore Stone I can finally see that it's a GND in full s/pl, very distant but something!

Then, the weather does this,

Exmouth getting

what-for

Me getting what-for!

Rain.

Oh, and a Grey Seal,

possibly wondering where the

surface is...?

I had the big bumbleshoot with me. This was a VERY GOOD THING.

And here we end.  What else I was planning to say, I can't remember. 

What I will say now is very simple;

GOOGLE ARE EVIL.

USE A DIFFERENT SEARCH ENGINE

 

Try DuckDuckGo. Is Yahoo still a thing? Or Bing?

Just not those greedy bastards.

THAT'S IT.

Be Seeing You...