MASS PANIC AS APOCALYPSE LOOMS
Ahem.
Today I was stirred from my post-Nights stupor - having decided a trip up to Frampton was not a safe thing - by a text from The Teacher: 'Marsh Sand at the Black Hole'. Having been thinking on looking for [presumably] this bird on the Exe, and having seen exactly one before, no less than 17 years ago [which was, incidentally, the last one in Devon..], I decided that I did indeed feel ok to go that far.
::One very much not Wacky Races interval later::
I rocked up to barely fit in the car park, meet the Mighty JT on his way out and learn that the bird - and very full supporting cast - was on show, and then shortly after The Teacher himself, abased before the Dread Artefact, which was unerringly locked on the vagrant wader.
[[Did I mention I've come off a Night shift and not yet slept?]]
Marsh Sandpiper is an elegant little-ish wader, like a cross betwixt Greenshank and Black-winged Stilt, which zips about watery places on long legs [often belly-deep] picking off insects and so forth with its knitting needle of a bill. This one showed a lot better than the other - seen sideways from the Bowling Green platform up the Clyst - though the bright Sun and wicked heat haze didn't help my attempts at pictures, alas.
Also on show a very nice Wood Sandpiper, two lovely Little Stints, a Spotshank, Common Sandpiper, Ruff, and a scattering of the usuals in the ways of Summery waders and wildfowl.
Look up! OSPREY!
'Hey, is that the Osprey back, high up to the North?' asked a birder who was paying attention. I got on it and channeled Obi-wan; "That's no Osprey, that's a WHITE TAILED EAGLE..."
::Cue pandemonium::
A little later, I wandered up to the north end viewing platform, as the Island Hide was a bit crowded for the weather and my nerves. This was a Good idea, and not just for the Wasp Spider by the main way.
'Look over there, is that another Buzzard?' 'Nope, that's a Red Kite.'
I loitered to have some rations and the coffee needed to navigate safely, and the Marshie and Woodie eventually came rather close, though of course directly up-Sun.
Finally, I was thinking of going, starting to pack the scope up, and oh, here's a butterfly landing right in front of me [and I mean touching distance].
That looks a bit bright... Oh ::Naughty words, sorry:: that's a Brown Hairstreak. In fact, that's a female Brown Hairstreak and she's laying eggs.
Just you wait until I've been through the hundreds of pics, uploaded the ok ones, and put the Brown Hairstreak shots up. Oh, just you wait.
I even hit the eagle. It's awful, but I hit it.
Kite's a bit better.
Waders are ok, considering.
Oh, what a day.
😁
Be Seeing You...
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