Another Wild Shrike Chase

 

Seems to be the way this year is going.. Mutter mutter.

 

So, a plan to take the one day of 'good' [ie. non-seawatching] weather last weekend to go look for even more funguses about Fernworthy was detoured by report of a Great Grey Shrike tarting about Vitifer.

 

I couldn't resist.

 

Cue a day-long chase here, there, and everywhere with not a sniff of the thing.

 

'Someone said someone else said they'd seen it but it flew off' was the closest I got.

 

 

Typical.

 

 

But, I didn't get rained on, I did see a very nice bit of bird behaviour, and I got out up on t' Moor, so not all bad. 

AND I got to run into a few of the Devon Scene for the first time in ages. [Cue socially distanced nattering :D ]

 

 

 

Ooh, what's that?

 

Lump of lichen.

 

And it wasn't even Monday...

 

But anyways, observe;

 

Great Spotted Woodpecker

 

Investigating a nice hole.

 

 

"Kick-ki ki.. ki... ki..."

 

Let's get to the close-ups...

 

Yellow Stagshorn

 

 

Yellow Brain

 

White Milking Bonnet

 

 

Snowy Waxcap

 

Yellowleg Bonnet

 

Panaeolus sp.

 

Matt Knight

 

Very pale Deceiver!

 

 

 Fungi are so considerate. 

Flammulaster granulosus?

Nitrous Bonnet

Be Seeing You...

More Of The Same. Yawn.

 

In which we travel back to last weekend [not this last weekend, the one before. I am once again a little behind...] to see the yellow, white, and 'other' funguses from the Nose, also the odd other thing as I'm not entirely one dimensional these days. Honest.

 

 

But first, some slight interest, as the trip to work that Monday saw a surprise wildlife sighting: big brown bat!! [Downway Lane, if you're interested] It was a warm night, but still, November bat. As to ID, it was hawking right over the road at head height, ie. low enough to be hit by traffic... Without a good view or better yet a detector you can't be sure, but I suspect GH.

Anyways, to the fungal pictures;

Butter Waxcap

H. reidii

H. persistens

Very boring slightly different yellow fungi...

And non-yellow ones;

 

Snowy Waxcap

Heath Waxcap

Slimy Waxcap

But the fungi at the Nose are by no means all little waxcaps..

 

Clouded Funnel

 

Powdery Brittlegill

[late, but very warm this year, so?]

Turf Mottlegill

 

Collared Parachute

 

 Away from the Nose, the odd fungal sighting still;

Fairy Ring Champignon

 

But it's not all fruiting bodies, here's another hanger-on.

 

November Bumblebee

 

 The birds are starting to be more visible - and audible! - again;

 

Nuthatch,

mid 'Trett!'

 

Wintering Chaffinches are back

 

 

 

Well, a long delay and not actually a lot of news, but at least no horrid gulls inflicted [this time] and we got there in the end. Now all I need to do is get to all the other things...

Be Seeing You...

 

I Must Be Quackers

 

After Friday's fun and nonsense [which I will get to], Saturday was a bit of a washout in more than one sense, and I found myself on Sunday suffering a serious case of apathy. When your get-up-and-go has got up and gone, it can take the oddest thing to finally prod you into doing something, anything [other than a 'last in the technical' attempt at a sachertorte...].

 

 

So suddenly randomly in motion, I found myself racing the sunset to go see a duck on a duckpond.

 

Dear oh dear oh dear...

 

 

At least it was there [unlike my last twitch to the site....]

 

Scaup.

1cy male

 

Just starting to moult in the finely barred [that'll be 'vermiculated' in proper speak] light grey back that marks Scaup out so. 

 

 

Pied Wagtail

Great Northern Diver

[actually nowhere near Brixham Harbour, 

love that foreshortening]

Also to come, the weekend before, and that trip out I mentioned earlier.

Oh, can't hardly wait, can you?

I suppose I can show you one thing;

A slice

Yes, sachertorte is supposed to have more layers, but that would require the thing to rise a bit more... [Or at all]  Also supposed to be made with apricot jam leavened with brandy, but I used raspberry with gin and a splash of rum*. Sue me.

[Tastes ok, at least  :) ]

And on that note, I shall

 

Be Seeing You...

 

 

[[* I ran out of gin... Ahem.]]

[[[And it didn't have a soggy bottom, before you think of going there.]]]

Dreadfully Boring Post

 

Still recovering - perhaps more from the medication than the condition - I once again stayed local to the inner Patch and didn't go swanning about after tweety birds elsewhere.

 

 

With the weather still feeling rather unhelpful, birds weren't amazingly thick on the ground, or in the bush, though a few sizeable flocks of Woodpigs were flying about in their typical seemingly aimless manner. Being off the main line of migration, the Woodpig Annual Display is limited to those flocks which detour to stuff their funny little bills with acorns on the local coastal wooded slopes.

[See? Those 'horrid non-native' evergreen oaks have their uses...]

Thus you can, while traversing IMD or Lincombe Drive, flush vast clattering masses of them. Maybe hundreds not thousands 'vast', but still a sight to see.

 

My attempts to find a Pallas' Warbler of my very own met the expected utter failure - I couldn't even relocate a YBW this weekend* - though a lovely Firecrest on Sunday [showed beautifully until I went for the camera, the little scamp] made some recompense. The same day also saw a seemingly lone Redwing having some rather, er, vigourous discussions with local Song Thrushes, also at the Nose.

[I'm really not sure what was going on there, but watching a Redwing chasing a Song Thrush around at head height was entertaining - for me at least!]

 

Careful checking of sea found exactly zero divers, and of the gulls found zero fancy ones. Plus ca change.

Once again, the day was saved by those reliable little darlings; Fungi.

Yup, another parade of mostly little mostly pretty funguses ensues..

Blackening Waxcap, with

ooh, lookit the spider!!!!

Is that a Strawberry Spider?? It's tiny and pinky-red, anyways.

 

[[Note to self. Get book on spiders. Also bees. Also hoverflies. Also..]] 

 

 

Ahem.

Observe a little progression;

Blackening Waxcap

 

Blackening Waxcap

 

Blackening Waxcap

 

For extra win, those three were within a metre of each other. :D

 

Parrot Waxcap

Parrot Waxcap

 Note the stem colour change, but still a greenish hue to the flesh.

 

Scarlet Waxcaps

I'm pretty sure the pale effect on the bigger ones [none are at all 'big'] is caused by windburn.

 

 

Goblet Waxcaps

 

They look like cherry tomatoes, nestled in the grass.

 

Now a little variation;

 

Vermillion Waxcap

 

Same sp.,

Showing nicely the characteristic striated yellow margins to the cap.

 

 

Mrs. Kestrel

 

Bird required. :)

 

 

Due to excess fungi I have cut this post into two.   More on the way!

 

[It's nowhere near as scary as 'I've seen more gulls..', now isn't it?]

 

Be Seeing You...

 

 

 

 

[[* I did meet one in the village, though, so I guess they've filtered more inland... This is not a great thing for trying to find them, as 99% of the trees they might be in are in someone with too much money's garden. ]]

Waxworks II: The Follow-up Visit

Last weekend, I was again at the Nose, seeing not much of a bird nature, but again finding waxcaps whilst bowed against howling wind and driving drizzle...

Things just keep happening, don't they? A slight attack of the side effects reinforced a 'stay on Patch' weekend, which was doubly frustrating considering what was coming [for the Historical Record, it's 'Lockdown 2: This time it's cold and wet and horrid'... Ahem]*

But I have more cute little plasticky funguses, photo'd whilst soggy, which is when they look their best imho, and this time I almost certainly won't stick surprise horrid gulls on the end. Honest.

You believe me, don't you?

Anyways, observe, regardez-vous!

Goblet Waxcap

Blackening Waxcap

Parrot Waxcap

Plastic? That one looked like it was made of glass...  :)

Snowy Waxcap

More of

Heath Waxcap

Hygrocybe reidii

H. persistens

Away from the Nose, I found something interesting and very Purdy;

Ooooh...

Metallic lilac!

But what is it?

A very good question. I'm not sure, is the answer! I think it's Lilac Bonnet, but it seems, well, a bit too lilac [yes, really]. Before anybody says "It's always the [Amethyst] Deceiver!", note the big umbo and un-Deceiverly stem. 

Gorgeous thing, whatever it is.

That's all, folks!

Be Seeing You...

[[*Turns out we would be allowed to go birding, if not tarting all over the country. But I didn't know that then.]]

A Bridge Too Late

Monday.

With a new lockdown looming and being freshly onto nights, I took what seemed at the time to be my last chance to go swanning off after birds. A Bittern tarting about in broad daylight for two days running looked like a pattern and seemed worth a try, so it was that I wandered down Slapton way.

I spent two hours stood on a bridge in a very cold wind, waiting for this blimmin' thing to appear..

Yup, not a sniff.

I did see a nice Sprawk, two Kingfishers, a Cetti's [yes saw] and a Water Rail [yes, saw again]. 350+ Starlings did their best to murmurate and I may have set a new personal record for long-range freshwater duck-scoping* [RNDs and their lovely distinctive triangular heads - not even a year tick, though...!]

Well, that's birding. Sometimes you win and sometimes you get cold and at least not rained on really hard. 

I held on until it was dark, as once upon a time when hanging around on said bridge a Bittern walked right under me... ::Fond sigh of recollection:: closest I've even seen one, I didn't dare breath..  :D

Not this time, though.

And I didn't even get a nice LEO - or anything else - on my way home in the dark, either. [Tut]

Leprechaun indicates Bittern location

Be Seeing You...

[[* At sea I've done much better, though mostly cliff-assisted.]]

Waxworks

Slightly-delayed follow-up to the last post. Possibly a little easier on the poor suffering eyes?

While at the Nose for certain activities of a seawatchy nature, I noticed that the council have been at it with the mowers again. The Blasted Heath is blasted anew, and while they still don't know how to take their cuttings away [They burn the big stuff, but leave the grass...] the freshly exposed surface does at least allow me to hunt for waxcaps. This I did and look what I found;

Blackening Waxcap

 

I do like waxcaps. They are lovely little [here, at least] fungi.

:)

Hygrocybe helobia

Butter Waxcap

Cedarwood Waxcap

Parrot Waxcap

Not just hygrocybes on display, and indeed much easier to see than tiny plastic 'shrooms were,

Fairy Inkcap

[or possibly C. silvaticus]

Glistening Inkcap

Ah, what a pleasant post. Pretty pictures, all close and in focus [for once] and not a distant grainy gull in sight.

[[Did someone say distant grainy gulls??]]

[[Uh oh]]

Gulls in the rain!

From a little earlier in the day than those lovely funguses up there. 

Heh heh heh...

[I'd apologise, but that would imply I was sorry. :) ]

Be Seeing You...