That Which Was Lost

Ok, after delays due to chasing birds after the delays due to hardware issues, let us get back on with it sort of where I left off;
[You remember, I had been seawatching at the Nose and seen lots of skuas and photographed a few of them..? Yes? Right]

Red Admirals still about in numbers

Not too bad a start. Now, do I inflict the assorted horrible attempts at skuas and even Balearics I tried on the day?

Arctic Skua

Ok, that one wasn't too horrible.

You can see what it is

Well, you can see something

Probably not a mark on the lens

To sp. from this, right?

With a Gannet for scale

Yet another

These are all different individuals, by the way.

That one's a light morph!

Intermediate morph

 

 

Skua on the deck!

It is, of course, a Bonxie! [I bet that Gannet went ".....aaaaargh!" very very quietly to itself..!]

Right, and now for that other staple;

Gulls on the Lead Stone

Can you see the one I was looking at? Surprisingly well camouflaged.

Some gulls came a bit closer

Aiming at a Balearic, I caught this

1cy Gannet in lovely pose. Imagine this with some more range and light so you can't see that bill well....

Spot the Turnstone

Right, I think that'll do.

Oh, you really missed this, didn't you [yeah, for the whole week I was offline..!!]

Anyways, I probably forgot to add some more close up [ish] Bonxie pics - I took a load of them - but nm.

Coming up, mostly mundanities about the Patch, a couple of not very good pictures of a very pretty bird, and the inevitable Schnooted One.


It makes sense in my head.


Be Seeing You...

He's Back, All Shiny And New

Yes, after minor technical difficulties prevented me getting online at all - ouch - I am back. I am also seeing a brighter internet, so hopefully my photos won't be quite as awful as they have been [due to what I see now was an overly dark - despite being on max brightness - monitor..!]

Anyways, I don't have time to get to all the posts which were work in progress today, so still not quite proper new posts yet, but I think you deserve something;

Vismigging Sunrise

 

Well, that wasn't sooooo bad, was it?

Don't worry, far worse to come; Blobs, sah, 'undreds of 'em!

[::Bad Caine impersonation:: Will you stop showing those bladdy skuas to me!]




But until then, I shall once more


Be Seeing You...

It's Wet And Windy, Oh Whatever Shall I Do???

So with work and culinary mad science taking up a fair bit of time, I had Sunday morning to play with the weather. It was a repeat of a week before, only this time I had to things to do afterwards, and, well, I wasn't going to lug my kit over again.. [Also, it wasn't No Car Sunday any more!]

Gunkshine at the Nose

Five hours of brightness, gunk, the odd shower - but no epic rain, really - gave... Well, actually quite a lot! Pretty much a skua every 5 minutes, for starters and main course! :D

59 in total, more than half Arctics and most of the rest Bonxies. A beautiful dark morph juvenile Long-tail was the definite highlight :D and in a resumption of more expected service, a mere 2 Poms.

Unfortunately for you - and especially the local birds - a few skuas came closer than a kilometre and one Bonxie decided to come play with the gulls on the shreds of the slick [the SWBCM fired up but the wind was not helpful, as you will see down there], with horrific results for them. Poor babies.


Only seven shearwaters, all Balearic, and not a single Fulmar, but especially early on, loads of Gannets, and late on a fair rush of Kittiwakes.

Pics or numbers?

Pics
{Even so, don't bother expanding them, too much dizzle in the air}

Bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-Bonxie!*

Here comes trouble

Bowling ball effect;

Bonxie comes in,

everything scatters!

Very out of focus, but look at it;

Bonxie chases 1cy Herring Gull

"C'mere, you!"

"Gotcha"

::Biff!::

After much violence, 

a now lighter gull finally allowed to flee

But that one was really lucky, as later on another Bonxie came in with far more serious intent. I only caught the aftermath on camera; after the skua ambled off, there was a feeding frenzy for the poor tattered leftovers..

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

1cy GBB has just nicked the remains of an unlucky 1cy Herring from a big [male?] adult GBB. It didn't keep its prize for more than about 5 seconds, though..

::Burps::

Other skuas passed further out - almost all on the Manxie line, as you might expect, but the odd one out at Big Shear - these usually combining with either gunk or sunshine to wind up as 'spp.' [though probably all Arctic]

Arctic Skua - dark morph

Closer in was a lovely young Little Gull - hiding in a drawn out group of a dozen Kittiwakes - also 5 Meds, at least 11 LBBs and a scattering of BHGs. Kittiwake numbers started very slowly, before taking off late on as the weather cleared - this pretty much the reverse of Gannets - while not a single Fulmar was seen to pass and only 20 auks. Waders have started to pick up, with four Turnstone, two Purple Sand, two Dunlin, and a Golden Plover.

There was continuous feeding at least 3 or 4 km out - first to the ESE then working S - with a present line of mostly Gannets all the time I was there. Closer to, a couple of sightings of Common Dolphin - also moving south - with at least 3 and probably a lot more, both times shadowed by Gannets.


NOTICE:
This post is having to be curtailed due to a sudden attack of technical issues. It may be that Backward Birding may be going on involuntary hiatus for a bit..


Be Seeing You..?




[[*To the tune of 'Bonkers', obv. ;) ]]

Moths Again?!?

But it's such a pretty moth.  :)

So in this little ketchup double-header, 'tis time for a little stuff from the Patch and so on.


What's been going on? Well, aside from work and so on, and now [at last] a lot of rain, I've still found a few moths and things needing photographing.

Light Emerald

Very light - look at the light shining through it! :D

"Moths again! Yummy!"

Snout

[2nd gen.]

Can't find this, so presumably

a 'micro' [very big one..]

Took an amble out and about. Bit windy for land birds, but a bit bright for seabirds. What to do? look in between;

East winds and rising tide

Surf's up?

Wall of water

BHG over flotsam and jetsam

Med Gull on the deck 

[look, no black in the primaries]

Back to things in focus;

Not sure [can't find in the book], but

surely not a micro!

Small Blood Vein

Small Fan-footed Wave

Yes, an epic post, but all the seawatchy fun got posted promptly, as did that Marsh Harrier!  [Still rather happy about that - only the second one I've seen on Patch and I managed to photo them both!*]




Be Seeing You...

[[*On a seawatch a 'few' years ago at the Nose, one came in/off a little to the North of me. I got a phonescope shot of great awfulness**, but you could see it was a long-winged dark brown raptor with cream above and below the eye; good enough! ]]
[[**Older readers will remember with a shudder how bad my pics were in the 'phone held to...' years..... Eeek]]

Looking Up, Looking Down

So I took the chance of the last day of sunshine and easterly winds to do a little skywatching. I freely admit to hoping for a White Stork of any provenance - it has been 20-plus years since I've seen one, after all! - or maybe some sort of nice raptor maybe even in photo range..

Ho ho ho.

Looking up doesn't help? Well, you also do well to look down now and again. Never know what might be right in the car park...

Humpback Brittlegill
[This definitely one; lovely hump! :) ]

It was blowing a hoolie at my first site; Mamhead. Yes, winds onto ridge is usually good for soaring things, but not when they're this strong.. Drat.

[Work prevented earlier trip, btw]

So I tried anyway, with the view I could find [they need to do some trimming there, as well as at Fernworthy..]

If you stand right back, you can see a bit of the Exe valley

Even the Big Scope [yes, I lugged it along] could find nothing more than a few cruising Herring Gulls and the odd corvid [some very odd, but that's Rooks for you.. ;) ]

However, there were a few things to see once I gave up on looking up and tried looking down;

Common Darter

Ochre Brittlegill

Powdery Brittlegill

R. fragilis

Leopard Earthball

Old Common Puffball

Collybia sp.

Old amanita sp.

I think this is Grey-spotted

Entoloma conferendum?

A Knight sp., I think
Doesn't look right for Soapy,
Yellowing or even Deceiving??

Toughshank sp., I think

Brown spores maybe???? :)

Southern Bracket

Willow Bracket

Well, I wasn't about to give up on my primary mission, so I tried Site B, aka;

Somewhere Else

As you can see from the foreground, someone's been doing some clearing of the field of view [maybe they can go to Mamhead when they're done?]. Not a full job, but much better than it was.

So, looking more with than into the wind, what can I report?

3 Buzzards and a Sprawk. Not so incredible, but considering, not so bad. Also a light passage of passing hirundines, using the ridge line as a windbreak.

Despite the wind, it was rather hazy

No pics of anything flying, so here's something that did pose;

Long-stalked Cranesbill

Closest I've got to a Stork... [Bah-dum tsch!]


So, did some watching, saw some things. Definitely worth a try.
Not awesome, not awful.


Be Seeing You...