Gulls Don't Have Spoons....

Took a moment for me to twig the 'group of dark juvie gulls' coming through while I was looking at a distant Arctic Skua were in fact Poms.. Oh dear. *

Led by a spooned dark adult - yowzer! - a total of six may not be epic, but for this not so great year, I'll take them!

Note to self;

gulls don't have spoons, see?

[Well, unless they ate them...]

It was skuas ahoy today at the Nose, with a total of 34 in 5 hours [well, the four in the middle, more accurately and a third in 5 nutty minutes!] of overcast to rain to brightness with big showers with a mounting wind going from SSW to SSE.

By contrast, a single shearwater. Yes, ONE. It was a Balearic, and a very nice one, too, though.

Skuas were; 1 dark-intermediate morph juvie Long-tailed at 0807, 11 Pomarine [as well as the 6, a juvenile with adult light morph being closely followed by a Bonxie..], 17 Arctic, and 5 Bonxie.
The visibility between the epic rain attacks was good enough to not have any 'spp.', despite none being closer than Manxie line range. 

The commoner stuff; 530 Gannets, 73 Kittiwakes [mostly late on], 37 auks [mostly Razorbills and also later], 4 Fulmars [yes, 4], a Common Tern, a Common Gull, 5 LBBs, a Swallow in/off

The proportional shifts in numbers are interesting, you'd expect the shears to clear off, but perhaps not this early, while the drops in Kitts and especially Fulmars from last watch are quite marked, aren't they?

I tried very hard to get some usable skua pictures, but with ranges of 1km+... Well.

You get - at best! - this,

Ok, you see the Shag lower left?

Now, look up at the top, just right of centre...

That's an Arctic Skua.

Really.

Yeah.

Thus the scenery and Things Big Enough To Photo,

Oh, it's seawatching fun and games!

:D

'Ocean Tiara'

Really.

[Ship names.. who comes up with them??]

I'm not even repeating that one..

Zoom in if you really want to know it

Gannets!

Even in the less than St. Ives light of the Nose

a young Gannet's bum crescent stands out

[I'm just saying]

LBB

Drier spp. photo'd better;

Leafhopper

Hoverfly

Another

And another

All very atmospheric

And then, as I was staggering making my way home, what did a chorus of outraged local raptor-pesterers herald?

Name that raptor!
[No, this one isn't a Buzzard]

Flew right over my place, too; Home Tick! :D

Yes, it's not a great picture, but my camera threw a hissyfit - always at the worst times - and this is the only one I got. 


Be Seeing You...

[[*The correct lesson is of course 'never assume and check everything'. Like I am still doing with Gannets**. They're out there somewhere, you know!]]
[[** Long term readers will recall - probably with an eye roll - my continuing notation of the Dreaded Booby-a-like Gannets you get now and again. And that Frigate-a-like one time {it had its head pulled in, never seen the like before or since!!}]]

The Northwest Passage

What to do with my last weekday?

The traditional walk, of course, with NE winds and light cloud forecast; Fur Tor.


A good call, as despite Postbridge being quite busy, I hardly saw a soul all day; just a couple of runners in the distance. I heard a fair bit, as the Army were playing with their GPMGs on Willsworthy - you could hear firing then hits [nice neat bursts] pretty much all the way - but nothing else, and in the gaps it was silent but for wind and Mipits. :D

Meadow Pipit

Yes, opening up with a Mipit. There were hordes of them about, including big groups moving through together. And this one really posed beautifully, didn't it?

I wandered over, sat for a couple of hours, then wandered back. It was a little damper under foot than over the high Summer, but not enough to offer difficulties. I still felt my legs more than I used to; I fear it's true, I'm getting old.  ::Sigh::

Anyways, here's some more pictures of scenery and wildlife, mobile and less so;

The Waterfall

All very pretty

Fur Tor from Cut Hill

This is one of the few angles where the optical illusion doesn't work; you can see the Wilhay is higher than Yes Tor [off there on the right horizon]

Up close and personal

Distant Wheatear

Close Wheatear

Male Reed Bunting

Female Reed Bunting

The inevitable Mipit

So many, in the end one posed fairly close

Panaeolus sp.

You know what it is

I'm facing a bit of a quandry with the blog. I have an awful lot of fungi which need names to be properly put up, but IDs take a lot of time and aren't always possible, sometimes even to family. So, yes, you're going to see a lot more of that up there 'insert name here' or some possibly allegedly humourous version thereof coming up.

Or you can just look at them, go 'ooh' or 'ugh' or 'whatever', and move on.

I fully intend to get to them all properly.

Eventually.

At some point.

In the future.

This year.

Probably.


Hopefully.

No, this year, if not perhaps all this month.




Anyways. I went to Fur Tor, it was lovely.


Be Seeing You...

A Stroll By Teign

Yes, I dropped the the. Blame too much Tolkien too young.  :D


Went for a very pleasant half day amble with the folks. We had lunch at Fingle, then wandered down to Clifford, then on the way back turned off up a track to a quiet spot* for afternoonses. All very civilised. Well, apart from Her Terribleness... :)

Teign and the Terror-er

All very pretty.

Trees!

[Ahem]

Scenic

Birds?

Dipper!

"I'm done posing"

It was, however, mostly about fungi, as a whole heap had popped up [the mix of rain and heat clearly doing them good].

Make room for the mushrooms!!!
[Ahem.]

 Ochre Brittlegill
[though it's a pale one and looks a bit like
R. raoultii]

Boletus sp.

Sulphur Tuft

Scaly Earthball

Er..

Add name

Oilslick Brittlegill

Pestle Puffball

Inocybe sp.**
[I. godeyi, cookei, or patouillardii]

Cep
[Rather munched, alas]

I think this is a parasitic fungus growing on something else??

Third Boletus sp.

And a fourth Boletus!
[Buff cap + red stem is not in my book..]

We had a lovely afternoon, even allowing for me scampering off after fungi every few minutes..! Even the Little Black Dog behaved herself. Mostly. Spending much time doing her 'self-propelled woodchipper' routine.. :)


Be Seeing You...


[[* Ie., where LBD couldn't see anything she might want to bark at...]]
[[** Tough one, showing characters of each spp. Also, stuff official names, I like the one I learned it as from Collins Gem! ;) ]]

Not What I Expected

So, after much Booby-twitching I went back down to cornywarl again. This time for a proper seawatch.

Having to take what weather I could, I went for a forecast NW after an overnight-early morning draped front. Sounds like Pendeen. Sounds like storm petrel spp. [Stop laughing]


Well, it started badly, with yet another horror show of a trip down..

But then I got there - found nobody at the light?!? - and was instead met by this character;

Chough!

Surely a good omen??

Count the Grey Seals!

Looks a bit sunny, though...

And it was, though this changed, as some seriously antisocial squalls started turning up

Incoming....
[No, that's not fog]

Good sized swell, too

Why all the scenery? Well, aside from thousands [and thousands and thousands] of Manxies, a fair few Gannets, and a scattering of Fulmars and Kittiwakes, plus a modicum of mainly Razorbills, there wasn't actually much passing.
Two Arctic Skuas, a Bonxie, a Med Gull, a Turnstone. That's it.
Others claimed Balearics, but I didn't see any.

Manx Shearwater

[In strong sunshine]

Manxies on the rocks line

Arctic Skua

Dark morph

Even in overcast, the Gannets burnt out..

Grey Seal noshing Blonde Ray

Wheatear

Scenic surf

It was not an awful day by any means - even when it was raining sideways very hard - but I can't help but feel a little deflated. After all, Pendeen has a rep for a reason. Oh well, that's birding; you can't always [or even often] predict it. And when the wind is not in the direction forecast [it was pushing N by E if not further] that doesn't help, either. Ah, I wonder if one day we will get accurate weather forecasts? You know, when we have supercomputers that can see which way the wind will blow the next fricking day???

Ahem.

Perhaps that was a little unfair.

But I am getting tired of the weather not being what was promised. It's still going on, you know. Even getting past the traditional summer holiday 'lie to the tourists' phase...

Ahem again.

Rants rants rants, what's a blogger to do? I should stop writing off the back of work, or when it's hot, or, well perhaps ever.

Will I?

Ho ho ho.


Be Seeing You...

P.S.
Caught this by accident in one of my pics, any ideas??

Because you've got to have a blob.

[Less cropped than the Arctic photos; to give scale, that semi-breaker in front of it is about the same size as the one behind the Arctic in the upper shot.]