Patch. 3, More Of The Same

Well, kinda.

Singing extra-hard to

make up for lost time

Whitethroat at very last. An elusive female the day before [yes, that much a topsy-turvy Spring it has been].

Otherwise,

Wheatear

Whimbrel

Wheatear

Whimbrel

Going around and around in the same things.

Ahem.

Dotted Bee-fly

Ok, not entirely the same things.

HMS Queen Elizabeth

[Still no F35 flight shot though.. :( ]

More to come.

Oh yes.

Be Seeing You...

Yes! Patch Tick Proved At Last

What the vickers is he going on about?? You may very well wonder.

I'm talking butterflies here - sorrynotsorry - as there have, for several years now, been brief but frustrating encounters for me at or near the Nose with butterflies that look horribly like fritillaries.

You get Silver-washed on Patch, but these were always too early and too small and looked very very Pearl-y. But how to prove that Pearl-bordered Fritillary - the rarer of the Pearls - occurred on my dear Patch?

Never give up. That's how.

Thus it was, Saturday last, in the inestimable company of no less a birder than The Veteran himself, I got photons on target.

Sort of.

Enough.  Looooooooook!!

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Hah ha ha!

I was right!

Here's another - from Yarner, the next day - to compare [a bit, he wasn't feeling helpful...]

P-B F

Only underside on offer

That second one shows all the classic features vs Small Pearl-bordered, and you can see them in the Nose insect [especially once you allow for the black upperwing markings showing through a strongly-lit wing].

I am - as you might have guessed - rather pleased with this.

Be Seeing You...

Patch. 2; Glorious Flora!

Good news, everybody!

Oh come on... Futurama???

Mutter mutter

Ahem.

Right, so you may recall my bemoaning of the extinction of orchids at the Nose [following their mowing-to-death along certain roads and at certain workplaces....], with the thought last specimen being picked and discarded by waste[s] of oxygen unknown?

I was wrong.

There are times - very few, I admit - when I am happy to be very wrong.

This is one such;

Hello there

I'm just dotty

about you

Dayumn.

I really love orchids.

These being Common Spotted and Heath Spotteds [can you tell the difference?]. Nothing at all rare.

Yeah, common bog standard ones and they look like this!!

Now, how long these will last - they're far more obvious than the poor casualty - I do not know, but they're there and I saw them.

Joy.

Also of note;

Thrift

Bluebells and Primroses

Kidney Vetch

Common Field Speedwell

Definitely glorious flora, don't you agree?

Be Seeing You...

Down South

Last year, a Night Heron turned up by Slapton Bridge.

It was a young one, all streaky and so on, and as I had seen Night Heron in Devon [whole family of them, you may recall] and was chasing on the Patch only, I let it go.

Guess who's [likely] back?

Now much shinier and of course Yeartickier, I had to gosee.

Navy-crowned Night Heron

Yes, I know what it is officially called. But that colour is navy blue; in no way, shape, form, or stupid internet dress meme is that black.

That is not a typical view, though. This is;

Sexy leg[s]

Ahem.

It was tough to be a fishie down there by the bridge, as the NH was not alone....

"The first one to make a Dad's Army

 joke loses a hand..."

That Pike is a good metre long.

I also managed to yeartick the mighty Mr Evans, and after a Sarnie break-

Told you

-witnessed him use his Power to summon the Ring-necked Duck out from where he'd been hiding. 

 

Prior to that I'd checked Ireland Bay on the offchance a reported 'brief female Scaup' from a few days before hadn't been that Tufty with all the white around her bill base [You know the answer], meeting many mundanes and a few nice flowers

Wood Avens

 

 

If I'd been more efficient - or at least more psychic - I'd be able to tell of heading back via going further away.

But no, so it was on the Monday that I got down to Beesands in search of a proper Devon Tick.

As I've told, the Hooded Crow clearly needed a hug [and possibly a ball and chain...]. But I persisted when I ran out of patience. This may well be at least partly due to the lovely ladies who were giving out free coffee and cake at the [also lovely] little church. Proper no-strings giving, just like you're supposed to.

Warmed the cockles, it did.

[Yes, I did give something, but only because I chose to.]

So perhaps a little Divine Intervention made me wander around, go up there, wait just long enough and look across on my way back to see the Hoodie sat in a tree like it hadn't been awol for 4 hours...

"Got any cake?"

Best view I got.

I ran to find the only other birders left on site... It vanished. Half an hour later it pulled the same trick on another chap.

Later still it started behaving a bit better, and Baileys - returning from the Heron - got on it nicely. Well, briefly.

More views;

Re-refound you!

"This is my 'hench crow' pose"

"I do NOT have googly eyes!"

Also wandering in front of the camera;

Yup, you're in Devon

A moderate aside,

Playing les buggeurs risibles with Sedge Warblers at Exminster is a standard of anyone with a camera. Along the causeway you are just so close to them, you can't not spend ages being teased and tormented.

Getting revenge on the sp. as a whole, though...

>:D

At the Ley;

Perched on Reeds, even!

:D

Singing!

Facing towards me

Yar boo sucks to you and other comments.

:P

Ahem.

Dunnock

Now that's a pose.

:)

I tried an old site for Turtle Dove on my way home. Not even a hint of dice, but, well, you have to try.

[I'd give odds of 20:1 against my getting one this year, but that's not stopping the trying. ]

Anyways,

Be Seeing You...

Patch. 1; Birds And The Bees

The Guillemots and Razorbills are back on the Ore Stone, but I'm sparing you until I get a decently sharp image of them. A Whitethroat has been heard to sing, but not when I've been there. All the usual resident and migrant breeders are getting vocal / busy otherwise.

Passers-by included a few more interesting birds. Big upvote for opening up with the camera on sight of passing waders, as even of you hear one sp. calling, it might not be what you're looking at.

I hear Whimbrel calling!

Look, there go 4 birds...

ZAP!

Funny-looking Whimbrel..?!?

Yup, those are Bar-tailed Godwits.

By size of bills, those are 2 males and 2 females [the females being bigger!] [[I have more pics, btw]]

Also, love that s/pl  :D

I hear Whimbrel!

ZAP!

Now those are Whimbrel!

Lot of Barwits moving right now, so not exactly a surprise, really. But hearing one and seeing another always gets a 'huh?'

Closer-to and at least a little more helpful on the camera;

Carder Bee

Furrow Bee sp.,

possibly Furry-claspered

Waiting for a bee!

Very different predators

The ladybird touched the spider, a VERY fast interaction occurred, and then we have the aftermath;

Ahem...

Ladybirds can - as you see here - emit a nasty liquid to deter sudden visitors from getting overly-keen with fangs/mouthparts/fingers etc. The Nurseryweb Spider has reset his ambush pose and is waiting for something a little more edible...

Itsa Hoverfly.

[Ahem]

Of interest, none of these arthropods were actually at the Nose! Ok, they were just along IMD from the Nose, but still.

:)

More to come, including all the stuff I've threatened promised.

Be Seeing You...

Meanwhile, Over There...

The Patch is more than just the Nose.

No really, it is.

Wall

[photo'd...er... 'somewhere'...]

Wheatear

[likewise..]

Dock Bug

[I want to find a 

Rhombic Leatherbug.

Because.]

Speckled Wood

[This one was clearly

not feeling well.*]

Coastal Paederus

[a kind of rove beetle]

Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix

Ok, ok, maybe right now the Patch is mostly the Nose. If only because if I'm not there I'm either working or chasing yearticks elsewhere in Glorious Devon*....

Speaking of;

Got a couple at work. Yearticks that is.

House Martin was not entirely unexpected [though the bout of high weather-prompted skywatching on the lunchbreak producing exactly zero soaring anythings [not even a Buzzard!] wasn't]. Less expected was a Yellow Wagtail on an area of freshly-mown grass by the site reservoir [it's a fair sized site...]. This means I only need Citrine [!!] to complete the wagtail set at work.

Stop laughing, it might happen.

Most certainly not at the Nose, was this;

Twenty-plume Moth

One of those 'far too big to be-' micros.

Unlike the more properly micro-sized

Bee Moth

This is getting out of hand.

I shall continue assorted posts in a more appropriate manner.

I do have proper things to report.

Including Good News. :D

Not just Year ticks, either.

I shall leave you with a mystery. What bird, new for the year, when first seen approaching and about to fly over me at a decent height, made me think for a brief but heart-stopping moment of Alpine Swift?

[I have a photo. But not one of my better ones. You can tell it's not AS, though!]

Leaving you in a state of utter antici

pation.

I shall,

 

Be Seeing You...

[No fishnets. Promise.]

 

[[* This is the full official name, FYI ]]

Caw, Look At That

I'm not apologising for that title.

Behold, the proceeds of persistence;

Hooded Crow

Nigh on four hours after it had last been seen, when far better birders than me were convinced it had gone, a bout of sheer refusal to give up forced submission [sort of, it was still a right bugger for the next hour or so] from the Hoodie of Beesands. Devon Tick, oh yes.

I'm not gloating.

Ok, maybe just a leeeeetle bit.

:)

What? I refound it, got word out, and stayed after it until the masses had connected and it was behaving. [A bit better, anyway.]

More to come, including other birds battered, and indeed another Bicoloured Beauty.

[Yes, corvids can be beautiful. I mean look at it, ain't it gorgeous?? :D ]

Be Seeing You...