All The Other Stuff. And That Duck.

Right then, here's that ketchup post thing I promised..


But first, you may be interested in a certain duck?

Yeah, that one

It's a hybrid.

There, relax.

Despite seeming in that shot to be a RND, in the feather it actually looked horribly like a Lesser Scaup, but with too much black on the bill tip and a reddish cast to the purple gloss on its bonce. No idea as to wingbar, but I'd guess that's off, too. On the day I wondered about TuftyxFudge or TuftyxPochard, but having looked into it more, I'm wondering about LesserScaupxRing-necked Duck [or maybe even LScaupx(LScaupxRedhead)!!]..?

Gorgeous little bird, whatever spawned it [and wherever - what if it came from over the pond, genuine vagrant, but 'cos its a hybrid nobody cares?  lol]



So, other stuff from last week. [Oh, the terrible delay...]
 Monday saw a nice family trip along the Teign. In the rain. There were bacon baguettes, so it was all good. There were also many Dippers. And a certain Little Black Dog.

Spot The Dipper

Pretty pretty

Love that Birch

'orrible...

The day before [which would be Sunday, I think] was one of wind and rain and so on. I toddled down to the Nose and had a look at the sea. I even saw a few birds!

Though not for a while.

After a couple of hours of auks, Gannets, and Kittiwakes but nothing sexier, I was thinking about giving up, but then a GC Grebe flew past! So I stayed on and then an RT Diver did, too. Ho hum, maybe things were picking up? The SWBCM picked up, which was a start;

There were a few gulls about

Ok ok, I'm stopping with the gullses..


..Apart from one that dodged the camera [despite my best attempts] was a nice little 1w Little Gull, which bobbed about cutely between managing to get in and out without me seeing it in the air.. Hm. Definitely seen in the air was another diver, and this one was a cracking Black-throat! The icklest of gulls may be scarcer, but the BTD was definitely bird of the day. :)



Even earlier I went on a little trip to see soaring things, which succeeded, though not with the kind of views The Boss gets, more's the pity.

 Itsa Buzzard!

I then went on to another site on the fringe and had a look for Dippers, and even found one!

That white patch

In [slightly better] focus

Fewer birds but better views.

Getting closer to now in time, I took a prowl about the Patch on Saturday last [was it? Yes, I think so..]. Lots of foot-pounding about the streets, and I was delighted to find not only a couple of Treeeeecreeeepers singing at each other - in the garden of someone with far too much money - but some actual House Sparrows! These are surprisingly scarce in much of what is a very urban core of my Patch. I have had exactly two on my property since I moved here, both one visit wonders, and these are the first on the fancy side of The Hill that I've found. So quite happy. :)

Finally catching up.. Sunday saw me out for a yomp on t' Moor! I defied the forecast winds and heavy showers of hail and even thunder [that's what they said!] and went up between Avon and Erme. The wind was indeed stiff to strong, but apart from a little not-even-drizzle early on, no rain and even sunshine eventually ensued! I covered a little over 12 miles on rather wet ground, which wasn't bad, and even found some snow! :D 

I also found a mighty 4 Golden Plover and a more impressive 83 Fieldfare [in 3 groups]. Three each of Skylark and Mipit were braving the elements still up there. Right, piccies!;

Snow!

From Western White Barrow

[Redlake Heap and The Heap of Sinners in the foreground]

[Various famous Hills/Tors in background]

Winter Sun over Hickley Moor

The Dancers 

and the end of their row

Could be summer!

Ugborough Beacon from Hickley Tor

Ahh, twas Glorious up there.


Aaaaannd we're up to date.

[Ok, the sunshine brought the Bugs out, but that can wait.]



Be Seeing You..

Diver Diver!

Decided to wander over to Berry Head for today's incoming 'not a storm as it's only hitting the south west'. Something about a strong SE, with big waves and a high tide made me decide against the Nose. Oh yeah, the whole sewage spray thing, that's it.


I was amazed to find nobody there, even more so when nobody showed up. I mean, I know it's February, but this is the time of year when insanely rare seabirds can show up, and The Boss had scored the day before...  Oh well.

Yeah, so as you might guess from the title, there were a few divers on display. First up the best bit as a flock of seven went by southwards; six Red-throats and a Black!! Singles of Red- and Black- followed on, with a GND heading into the Bay. Other fancy birds included.. Well, absolutely nowt. In five hours. Not a skua. Not a grebe. Not a duck - not even a Mallard...

There were hordes of auks - I didn't even try clicking them, they were zooming through at all ranges and many were plonking down, too. A timed count gave 361 in ten minutes.. Yes, more than Two Thousand an hour..... The rate didn't let up, either, so that's maybe TEN THOUSAND passing while I was there. Gannets, Kittiwakes, and Fulmars were also moving in the low to mid hundreds.

There was a fair swell running

The sea chucked more water on me than the clouds did - not what I expected.

Under the sea there was more variety, with the Harbour Porpoises joined by brief Common Dolphin and longer Common Seal* sightings.



A catchup post will ensue soon, covering the bits I've missed out, including another seawatch and a few other things, too.


Be Seeing You..



[[*1. I've seen far more Grey Seals in harbours, 2. Black-headed Gulls.]]

The Eighth Goosander

Was the one that got too close.

Can you guess where this is?

The other nine [there were 2 more after him] stayed at a better distance to avoid infamy.


This was yesterday, when I did what I'd booked this week off to do last year. [Did that sentence make sense?] Yeah, so, I'd realised it had been a very long time since I'd been up to zumerzet to just go birding. [As opposed to chasing Hudwits and things.. ;) ] So, I resolved to fix this and decided that the bit where Jan and Feb meet would be the best balance of day length and cold weather while minimising crowds.

Yeah, that really worked.

Yon GoosygoosyGoosander was bobbing about here;

Cheese?

Unlike the RC Pochards I'd been hoping for. Which were utterly not there at all.


Eeeearlier, I'd been on t' Levels, where things went pretty well, bird-wise;

Mega mega White Thing

Flight shot

Flight shot!!

Flight shot!!!

A Dash of Colour

Less Colour

Whooooo!

-per.

Only two Whooper Swans - which dropped into Noah's just before noon, then vanished when collective eyes went off them [hiding behind an island or driven off by psycho Mutes?] - but the joy deserved two pics.

At least 4 Marsh Harriers - 1w, 2w f., ad f., ad m. - which all showed from Noah's [though as Decoy was helpfully 'closed for refurbishment', no better shots]. Couple of flying Bitterns [alas my camera sulked and refused to properly focus on the point-blank flypast...], Beardies were less keen to be immortalised - you know they're being naughty when you can get a Cetti's!! - but what can you do?

Unfortunately, I was just too late to catch the Starlings on electrons - just think about the locusts from Planet Earth II and you've got it..! - being distracted by going "Wooooaaah!", though I doubt they'd have come out properly, as it was still dimpsy.


Also of note, the maker was elusive but not the evidence of passage;

That's the ubiquitous scaling 10p, btw

There's been a lot of activity since last I wandered about that way, with paths improved [which is something of a two-edged sword, what with all these people using them. I mean, really...] and hides built.
I would have liked to put in something about the fancy crowd-sourced hide overlooking Meare Heath tanks, but was unamused to find it locked. Very public. Very considerate. The people can pay but they may not use. Hm.


Definitely open was the big fancy thing over the road;

The road to Avalon

Actual height? Ooohh....

Mandatory hill shot

Good location, good height, nice and roomy.. Yes. But unfortunate design flaws;

Oh dear

The now-expected badly-designed raspberry windows were a given, but the massive gaps? And why do they need such huge chunks of wood [which even staff admit will likely fall to bits inside 10 years due to construction issues]? They're not sicking another storey on, after all.
Also, plastic school chairs [lovely and noisy, though I admit back support is a welcome thing] and windows on one side only, as they don't seem to realise what internal partitions are for. Still, at least it is an actual hide and not a wide-open to view and weather pergola like Tor View.. 

I've said it before, I'll say it again, look at the Black Hole for properly designed hides [well, there's the odd minor issue with the seating.. ;) ].
It's a symptom of what's happened to the RSPB; once you get above the wardens and volunteers who get their hands dirty and look at the desk drivers, you find it's largely run by professional charity workers, who don't actually know much about birds and certainly don't wear bins unless being photographed. So you see examples like this; design in terms of artistic eco-engineering that miss the primary requirement. But never mind, they tick lots of boxes and look so nice on paper.


Ahem.

Here's another new [re]build;

Recreation of the Sweet Track

Tucked away but worth looking for. I must admit to surprise that it's not fenced off. I mean, the HSE would have a fit if anyone actually walked along it, right? [[Maybe I shouldn't be writing this..?]]


Now, here's an idea. Having seen the lengths [and tons of chippings] required to keep tracks about the Levels open, can we not take a leaf from the Ancestors' ways and do as they did. Mud and flooding are not anywhere near the issues when you're elevated, and with a wider, more stable version [Flag Fen, anyone?] of their design, we can move people without creating artificial partitions.

Just a thought.


Finally, I have a health and safety concern to raise, as it seems the safeguards put in place are woefully inadequate to protect the public from a terminal encounter;

The Great Serpent of Somerset..

All this and I hardly got rained on at all. And I haven't even got to the other fun thing I found on Noah's Lake. Namely, this pretty little character;

Between the Wigeon and the Tufty

Oh, I say....



Be Seeing You..

History Repeating

It was deja-vu all over again up on t' Moor on Saturday and no mistake.


Once again I believed [vaguely] the Met Office. Once again they were utterly wrong.

But that's an aside and not the point.



So, I went for the toddle that I'd put off the week before due to plague. This was the classic loop from Holne, over to and indeed over over the Mardle, up to Pupers - where I'd hoped to have a look for soaring things* - then over to Headland Warren, up to the Heap of Sinners, up more to Ryder's, then across Holne Moor to Venford, before finishing the loop. It's 18km or so.


It was overcast and gunky, not so much low cloud as very thick haze.. Hmm. Oh well, I was mostly there for a good yomp and that I had. The ground was firm but not frozen hard - at least not everywhere - though standing water had ice.

Pupers from Holne Lee

Looking up, it wasn't tooo hazy. You could see where you were going and so on. But bigger distances were problematic. What can you do? At least it made for a few pretty pictures;

The Big Heap at Redlake

Crunchy on top

And round the sides

Despite said ice, it was cold not bitter, the ice lingering more from bloody-mindedness than anything approaching sub-zero temperatures [it was 5° according to my li'l car, and that's not in sunshine]. The going up on the bogs around Ryder's was amusing; with the ice creaking and cracking, not thick enough to just go swanning over anything [which is such fun you don't mind the odd skid] but still letting you move with reasonable confidence over the mossy bits. Putting feet over 'frozen' water would have been a bad idea, I put a careful foot on one nice-looking bit with the hope of a skate, but after half of one foot's weight there was a sharp 'Crack'...

Now as to history. Once upon a Samhain, I was up that way on t' Moor and I met some interesting things. To whit; The Hunt, a Jack Snipe, and a holysheeeitethatwasclose!!! Merlin.

Yeeeeeup.

The Hunt was out in numbers - 30 followers off for what these days is a hack in very fancy duds - and I can only blame them for the Jack Snipe I met up on Pupers, where no Snipe of any flavour should be skulking! It did the usual up from under the feet routine then back down before you can even reach for a camera [not that a nice towering normal Snipe has ever come out as more than a blob, mind], showing me that lovely pointy dark tail and as usual giving me a good shock..
Trading places with the Jack, the Merlin was more distant this time but again a female.

Other birds were more to be expected, though again I noted a paucity of Yellowhammers. This is usually a really good place for them, but this time not one! Golden Plover flocks were met twice, with the only count being 43 on the flank of Pupers, and a scattering of Goosander were on both reservoirs [look down].


I took a slightly different route down from Ryder's to Venford, and was glad I did as I passed a nice hut circle. So here you go;

Hut circle, Holne Moor

Those near-uprights are a very neat doorway.


The res was.. well, look;

Venford, mirror calm

I stopped to finish my coffee off and see if the Goosanders [up near the dam when I arrived] would come closer and to my delight they did. The light was going by now, but that's never stopped me;

Four of the five present

Time pressing on, I went out the back way to cut back up to the Holne tracks, which was realllly jammy as I - having stopped to go "Huh?" at a Blue Tit mimicking Chiffchaff song** - was in the right spot looking the right way to see the Woodcock that had been flushed by one of the many loose dogs about, go flying past at head height... Wooooooo  :D


Happy days.


Be Seeing You..



 [[*I'd gone so far as to take the li'l scope and dinky tripod in my foolish optimism...]]
[[**Really. Imagine chiff-chaff-chaff-chiff-chaff etc. in a Blue Tit's 'teacher' tone.......]]

The Ecstasy And The Agony

Oh, what an afternoon...

Wingwax

Reminds me of an old movie..

Then they got closer..

"Yeah, I think this is my good side"

Waxwing. 0mph, ~40'

Viewing conditions weren't exactly ideal, with the toothy wind and.. interesting locale. The very next pic;

Boo!

Lorry. 60mph, ~10'....

And my camera almost got it sharp.

About a dozen were present, mobile between trees and the bushes in the central reservation of the A38 between British Ceramic Tiles and the china clay place - best viewed from the Teigngrace side - and there were plenty of admirers braving cold and traffic.

I headed on to Yarner, where, after a lovely lunch enjoying the scenery, I met some little tree birds. Most notably, a black and white one with a red crown. Oh hell yes. I stalked him for more than 20 minutes as he busily foraged near the pony pound. On my way in I got some other passing shots;

I was slow, I was quiet, I was careful, and eventually I was in position. There it was, tapping away on a branch, clear shot, quite low down, well-lit... I held my breath as I zoomed the camera in- the bird flew.

What?

Then I heard them, a retired couple came wandering along from the other direction, past me, not a clue what they'd just done.

I prayed for serenity, and She granted me just enough to stay out of prison.

Then, thinking of this moment, I took the shot;

This is not cropped.

Oh the horror, the torment and the woe. And I'd gone from such joy; this was a glorious bird, showing amazingly, just foraging away, being a woodpecker. Getting a DBR level photo would have let me share it with you; thousand words and so on...

I didn't give up; it had gone thattaway and I followed. Because you do.

Then I heard that tapping, stop-start tapping tapping tapping on my chamber doo-, sorry. On a tree.

And I found the bird again.

Up by the reservoir, higher up but there.. And then a lady with a dog, yapping away on her phone [her, not the dog; cream Labs don't yap..] came along...

Still I persevered. And AGAIN there it was, tapping away.. right up in the canopy. 

DON'TSTOPDON'TZOOMJUSTSHOOT!

What do you mean, you can't see it??

It is there. Not entirely in view, true, but you can see a bit of it if you look very very hard... Then before I could get a proper shot, off it flew all of its own accord, kicking in glee as it went.

To add insult to injury, the darn thing then showed up at the car park as I was leaving, and tormented me and two other birders by calling for ages but not showing a feather.

Birds......

Be Seeing You..