A Sunny Long Weekend

Spent mostly looking about for something I really really really wanted to get a picture of.


I admit it, there would have been crowing.


But this was not to be. Ever the bashful, Lemmy The Lammergeier manged to keep well out of shot.



Oh well.



I did see some nice scenery and some cracking birds - though the former was far more co-operative in the getting photos stakes, I must say - and covered some turf I'd not trod in an age.

Instead of burbling on, I'm just going to inflict blindness show you;

Great Mis Tor

Middle and Great Staple Tors and Roos Tor

The upper Walkham valley and Great Mis Tor,

 from Great Staple Tor

The Cowsic valley, with North Hessary Tor in the background

from Lydford Tor

Fresh bones along the Cowsic..

Devil's Tor and The Beardown Man,

Fur Tor on the horizon

The Man

Again, Fur Tor on the horizon [Great Links is also visible from there]. What may well be a collapsed row in the foreground.
This shot also amply shows why he's the Beardown Man. [That's not an artifact or photoshopping..]

The U rated side

The Man and Great Mis Tor

He doesn't measure up in all directions, though.. ;) 

On the High Moor

Hare, Sharp, Great Links, and Fur Tors

More bait!

"Put me on your blog, human!"

This stallion [plus hanger-on] demanded attention when I was minding my own beeswax at Conies' Down Tor. He walked right up in front of me and stood there until I'd taken his picture, then wandered back over to his herd!

One more;

Cup marked stone

Now unfortunately part of a wall [and somewhat defaced by paint-wielding ignorants].


So, lots of possibly-even-pretty pictures and very few words.




Be Seeing You..

In The Air

Got in from work and before I could do much the gulls went nuts. Looked out and couldn't see anything odd until.. wait, is that a.. Fulmar!?!??

I don't know if it was scared up by the Big Mystery or if IT was what had everything going, but it was well over land and well up.. Odd.

Also, found the remains of the first kill on the balcony - while I was at work of course! Presumably a Sprawk attack, I think a Goldfinch was hit, judging by the feathers. [I have oddly mixed feelings about this..]



Getting on to the Main Event, at last I had L news when I could do something about it.

Was shocked to actually get a wandering raptor on the way - a Red Kite over the A38 - and... Well, I gave it until the Buzzards gave up, and the Herons flew home, and the big kettle of gulls dispersed.


Wheatears are always good. A Cuckoo was calling. A Mipit had a very persistent pursuer...





Here's one for you;

What's more or less black, with looong wings, a looong tail, and is waaaaaay over there somewhere?


I'll tell you if I get a picture of the git!



Be Seeing You..?

With Great Vexation...

...and furious grippedness.


Did I read of what that bladdy [CENSOREDCENSOREDCENSORED] bird did yesterday.




Ahem.



So, Sunday. I had things to do, and only managed a quick look at the Harbour late PM.

The Artist's Common Dolphins* were waaaaaay off to the south [until a speedboat came along, anyway..]. A few Gannets - who helped me find the dolphins - were about over the calm seas, but the only birds of real interest were much closer.

The Real Living Coast

Stonking summer duds - like a mini Stiltie!

Not just a couple of Purple Sands [though those shots are the same bird], either;

Wowzer!

Two Turnstones, one much more summery than t'other, were also present on the RLC, along with a very vocal Rockit.

The waders were - as you can probably tell - very mobile and actively feeding, clearly just stopping by on their way to pastures north.



Closer to Home, the feeders continue to be hit at a staggering rate - you'de think it was deep winter or something - so I've tried adding soaked worms to see if that helps, but while some are being snarfed by a Blackbird [Blackbird in my ickle garden!], most seem to be being taken by the local Magpies..

Still, I suppose every time they hoover up my mealworms, they're leaving some nest alone..?




Be Seeing You..



[[*Ok, 'dolphin sp., almost certainly the Common Dolphins The Artist had seen from Brixham'...]]

Spoooon!

Seawatch at the Nose this PM.

2 Poms, light morph; stonking adult with exquisite spoons and a 3s - through together.

Good numbers of Manxies, and the odd heavy shower - it never quite stopped raining the whole time - gave some excellent bits and pieces, including 2 cracking Black Terns and a wader splurge starring a [very brief] Wood Sand [only my second on Patch].



EDIT:

Bit more detail;
Waders included Dunlin, Turnstone, and Whimbrel.
Swallows and a Swift in/off.
No Puffins, though, and only one Razorbill hanging around the Ore Stone [that I could see].
Moderate passage of Gannets, Kitts, and Fulmars.

There was also this character, who dropped in for a rest;

Ooh, what's that?

Gannet.

 

Adult and appeared uninjured, unfouled, and unoiled. As a lot of waders dropped in - some very quickly, some hanging around - I guess it too was just waiting while the rain did its thing.
Apparently, there's a lot of algae in the sea right now - the fish aren't biting due to it, said a couple of fishers - so maybe it didn't fancy sitting in the goo?


Be Seeing You..

That Big Day Out

Cast your minds back through the mists of time to those halcyon days when it was the Pelican flying around and Lammergeier was a fiendish crossword solution....



So, a great big 'orrible Dalmatian Pelican was flying around the west end of cornywall like something out of a Ghibli film..
After natural caution [and no small amount of research] I decided that the 'french park' theory was highly likely to be merde and that this was as kosher as you could get bar a satellite track.


And I hadn't been that way for an age.


So, down I toddled, all casual as it seemed to be following a nice pattern of flying around between 10 and 11. Roadworks and the usual fools made the trip interesting, but I got to the spot [not concreted and past Polgigga as well as Trethewey, but never mind] with plenty of time to spare.

Only to find out it 'was here 10 minutes ago'.

Oh dear.


The temptation to head up Carn Brea and sit there with the Big Scope was resisted and the bird duly appeared after it had decided enough people had given up.

What pictures follow suck even more than usual because I was far too busy going WOOOOOOOOOOW and making bad sketches to try more than a token effort at them.

But here you go anyway..

Look! Up in the sky!

The monster blacked out the sun...

Before heading off to terrorise the local fishing ponds

 

Amazing amazing bird... Interesting parallel with my last post, because it was noticable that it flew very much like a Griffon Vulture [also seen in Spain back in the day - insanely well... :D ]

Eventually, the DP got bored with showing off and headed out of sight. I decided to relocate somewhere I could have a bite and get out of the wind.. Drift.


Being a member of CBWPS has its perks, and access to Drift is one. I found the hide empty of birders and the res empty of the GWE that had been there the day before. It was full of floating fishermen in little rubber ring-come-carp chairs, though...
I suspect the two may be related.

There were a few Whimbrel foraging in one of the goose paddocks;

Three of ten

and someone [who was in and out of the hide so fast I couldn't even turn] flushed a Com Sand, which flew by calling, but mostly it was pretty quiet. A nice hefty LBB dropped in for a bath, the Pelican cruised by, you know...


Fancying a change of scenery and resisting the siren call of the sea, I picked a circle at random.

After a small detour for some more skywatching, I found myself here;

Boscawen-un

One stone is a huge block of quartz.

The leaning stone is very carefully placed.

A truly wonderful circle in its own little world. The rest of the afternoon just wandered by...



Finally heading homewards, I realised that it was late enough for a small detour and stopped off at my favourite Nightjar site. It was just after nine, clear and with that cold wind, so I wasn't tooo hopeful, but what the what, eh?

2115. Blimmin' Nightjar starts up from the tree right next to me. I was in a slightly more sheltered bit than usual - at least from this wind - and maybe that helped. Or maybe going early in the season is just a good idea. Whichever, at least 3 churring males, including one which gave a wonderful display of, well, display at the early time of 2123. [There were still daylight birds around]




Now if only that dear Great Winged Terror would rematerialise somewhere I can get to it...


[[What? I can dream!]]


Be Seeing You..

...................

I keep telling myself the following;

"I have a job I need a job I have a job I need a job I have a job I need a job"


So I am working and not spending every second of daylight scanning the Dartmoor skies...




Thing is, I've seen Lammergeiers.


It was long ago and it was far away [oh gCENSORED ] [[Sorry.]]



The first time, I fell off the mountain.


Ok, so Spain isn't that far away, but it was a fair while ago. I was a mad young geology student out learning mapping the hard [and fun] way. I didn't get many new birds, what with having other priorities, but Chough aside, those I did see were, well.. Big Ones.


The immature[s] were like SuperRavens, but the adult was a dream come true, as if my wishes had flown right out of my head; held there since I'd first picked up my parents' Collins [the old white one] as a teeny youngster. The soaring raptors page in particular [[why has nobody else done that? It was brilliant]] still sits in my memory.


But yeah, the first one... So, I was on this ridge on the mountain we were playing on and looking at an exposure. I had climbed up it to see if a particular stratum was silt or mud stone [for which you need a fresh surface], when something made me glance around. Naturally I gave the sky a quick scan and- bird! Bins up [they were also useful for being able to avoid crossing valleys to look at outcrops] and all thought stopped.

There I was balanced on this rock face, with THAT BIRD cruising by. Effortless.  It was a sunny day [of course] and the glare from the white limestone lit it beautifully.

It kept going and I twisted to follow it and so on and.. you can guess the next bit, right? Yup, the top half can turn only so far before the legs have to move and you can't stand on fresh air..


S
h
i
THUMP

Bugger

Fortunately I only fell about 4 feet. Unfortunately I landed rather badly and spent the rest of the trip hobbling..

It was worth it, though, even with 2 more sightings to come, under less damaging conditions.



So.... Lammergeier. What a bird. [What a name.]




I hope and pray that it's found an ex-Sheeeep or two and decides to hang around at least as long as that Pelican; two Giants in the south west.




Be Seeing You..

A Quick News Update Post

Because I've yet another trip report pending and I can't be sure when it'll arrive, here's a summary of the Backward News Headlines;

• Annoyingly quiet on a Patch lacking sexy migrants.

• The Dalmatian Pelican is AWESOME. Go see it.

• GWEs do not like floating fishermen. Whimbrel don't seem so bothered.

• There are lots of Buzzards in Penwith - where are these supposed hordes of kites [assorted]???

• Cornwall has some very nice circles.

• Nightjars at 2115 and frisky with it.

Finally, the 'human interest piece';
As you may have surmised, I got back rather late. So late that when I turned the box on, I saw the eurovision result.. Now, I'm really not a fan, but I have to say I was delighted. :)



[[BTW, I have no idea where the flowers came from, but they won't go away...]]


Be Seeing You..