Footwear Erosion

I've many a times past on this blog spoken of bashing the Patch. This is done with the soles of the feets, as I'm old skool and believe your local patch should be just that.


Living within a [fairly] easy walk of the Nose helps, I admit, though I'm not so well off as some [insert muttering about birders who have LOS to Lakes and Backwaters and have insane birds out the frickin' window...*]. Mutterling about my lack of mud aside, most of the Patch is private property and residential to boot, so quite hard to watch. But I keep at it. [[Definition of insanity definitely applies...]]


Anyway.


Getting back into getting out, while juggling This Time Of Year, has - you may be shocked to learn, given how this post has started - been a Patch-based affair.

I'd love to be able to segue into something wonderful, but it's been prettystandard fare. A few winter thrushes - mostly flying over - and a few [irritatingly bashful] scarcities, but not even a YBW to report. And I have been looking!

Not that what you're about to get is a dirge, there have been some nice counts, if nothing else, and a few birds reasonably up close and personal.

Hit it!

Winter Heliotrope

Out in numbers. Along with the usual 'what are they doing out in December?!?'s you get around here.
More mobile;

Verdamdt sqvirrelz...

Tessier in particular abounds with the things.. And unlike the birds, they usually feel like posing.

This chap landed next to me.

Ok, sometimes there's an exception, but I did have to shoot from the hip to get this.

Blackcap

Only posing warbler..

Chaffinch

Where's a Goshawk when you want one??

Away from everywhere else, the Nose has had the fun stuff which as I'm sure that sinking feeling is telling you, will be in the next post...


Sorry?


Coming up; Big Wet Things and lots of them.


[[Oh dear, more disappointed googlers....]]


Ahem.


Be Seeing You...







[[*Yes, I am aware I've seen three Ospreys from here. And had an eye-level Hobby flypast. But it's not the same as looking out onto the Exe or Axe estuaries, is it?]]

Sunrise!

Winter Solstice.

The start of a New Solar Year.


Hope. Expectation, even.







Another line of cloud on the horizon.....

Hail to the.. oh drat.

Hail to the Sun!!

:D

Got there eventually. One year I will get to actually see a Yule sunrise.

It's got to happen eventually!

Shiny..

The Moon putting on a good show, too.

All very scenic.

Then I got on with birding, and indeed mammaling, too. :)

But this will be in another post.


Oh yes, more of that nonsense.


Speaking of;

"Biiiirdiiing under a raiinbow..."

[Oh dear..]

I shall

Be Seeing You...

Back On The Moor. :D

A smiley in the title... What madness is this??


Well, feeling a lot better as I [hoped I] recovered from the over-prolonged plague, I could not stay off the Moor. Despite the weather involving frisky wind and great big frick-off showers. Including hail. And thunderbolts [though I wasn't expecting those, to be fair].


I didn't do anything too crazy, just a standard winter light trip; Cherrybridge to Laughter Tor. It was blowy and I got rained and hailed on hard, but that's what being prepared is for. I picked my lunch spot - where I've sat before with similar aims in past winters - with care and was utterly delighted when it paid off. Yes, the perspicacious among you who know what's been wandering about Dartmoor this Autumn/ Winter will have an idea now and be going ".....!!"

The rest will have to scroll down past some scenery, because I didn't want to advertise this one in the thumbnail [I'm rewarding loyal readers, despite it being total clickbait].

Right,

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

Ahem.

Bellever Tor

Very nice hut circles

[Bellever ridge is great for the archaeology]

Goldfinches more helpful than Crossbills this time

Ok, time for the main event;

Grey Ghost

Hen Harrier.

Adult male.

YAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

Ahem.

Yes, awful pictures; out of focus, off-centre, etc. etc. But I don't see a huge number of pics of this glorious chap around, so Something's better than Nothing, right? And he was a way off, behind scenery, and - worst of all - interrupting a Marmite and treacle sarnie*..!! [::Gasp!::]

Ahem again.


In my defence, it's been about 12 years since I last saw an adult male**, so perhaps I can be allowed a little fangirling?


In other bird news; Crossbills present in small groups, a pack of 18 Woodpigs flew north, a lone Stock Dove flew south [?], the usual spp. were in the plantation and other usuals out in the open, but unsurprisingly - given weather - it was fairly quiet.


Finally, yes fungi!

Yellowleg Bonnet

Yellow Webcap..?

Turf Mottlegill..??
[Markedly different in field from the above, btw,
even though it comes out - via flash - more 'yellowy'!]

Also lots of Common Earthballs, but no photos came out :( and the usual Sulphur Tufts, which I've shot so many times I'm stopping unless I meet some truly spectacular ones.
Instead;

More pretty scenery.
Looking out from Laughter Tor.

You see that thin strip of rough grassland pretty much centre shot? Yes, that's where the HH was. Right in the near bit, coming in and out of view behind the hill slope as he quartered the little valley hidden in there. I had to leg it up to the stone wall to get those pics!


What had seemed like an exercise in good form - a walk and trying-but-failing-to-see-what-I-hoped-for - turned out to be something wonderful.

Definitely worth getting weather-blasted for!

:D


Be Seeing You...



[[*What?!?! They're delicious. And great for using up a left-over end of a loaf. {Hmm, I may say more on this in a future post.}]]
[[**Why are adult males so scarce*** compared to females and immatures? Well, population balance must be part of it {lots of young ones each Autumn}, but it can't be entirely that; after all, males are plumaged for hunting proficiency, so should survive better, right? I wonder, perhaps, if maybe the fact that they stick out so well to us humans has something to do with it? After all, a brown ringtail is just as vulnerable to trapped posts and poisoned bait, but against a heathery background is far harder to see than a grey male. Especially for walking filth**** with a shotgun.]]
[[***I've now seen two in the last twenty years, ringtails are pretty much annual, especially if I head to the Levels in winter.]]
[[****That's as polite as I can get. {Another future post probably required}]]

Service Notice

Due to technical issues, Backward Birding may be cut off without warning for an indeterminate period.

Yeah, I'm delighted, too - this is my entire internet, not just blogger, btw - but if there's a sudden absence of posts, I'm probably just cut off. I'm trying to pre-empt it, but as I have access right now [first time today!], I thought it prudent to put this up.

Because I care about you, and I hope know you'd worry if I vanished.



Where else would you go for your visual masochism??

Be Seeing You...?

Getting Back Out 2. Nice Weather For Ducks?

So, despite still not being anything like right [though better than I was] I wanted to get outside. The objective being chasing tweety birds, getting some reasonably gentle exercise, and definitely not seawatching.

Ho hum.

The discovery of 'very showy' Beardies at RVP was a temptation not to be missed, so I tried that one. I ended up ambling up and down the Exe Canal while trying and sometimes succeeding in avoiding getting absolutely tipped on by assorted Great Big Gribbly Squalls that were muntering about the place..

Not ideal, perhaps, but still slightly better for the health than sitting in said weather for a few hours in hope of a Little Auk, I suppose.


I don't know about showing amazingly - after all I've seen no photos, and if they were performing that well surely there would be some, these days?? - but there were a couple of Beardies knocking about the reeds from the first screen [or what's left of it], though they were hardly showing well. In the brief glorious patches of sun I got two views and one burst of calling, in getting on for two hours.

They're out there...

Somewhere under the rainbow.. [Ahem] The illuminated Willow, yup? Front and left of that are some brambles, yes?
In front and left of those is a patch of dead ground. Beardies went in there. Little gits.

EDIT: These were seen again at the same place a couple of weeks later, so perhaps they're sticking around? Or - more likely? - using these much more sheltered reeds when the weather's nasty [and it has been very blowy this Autumn/Winter].


If the Bearded Tits won't behave, maybe something else will. Keep looking at ducks and eventually you'll find a good one, right?

Gadwall

Ok, only a Gadwall, and out of focus, but we keep at it.

This is on the somewhat hidden pool at the sewage works;

Convenient and easy to watch.
Sort of.

There were quite a few assorted wildfowl there, hiding out and out of view [ok, occasionally in view]. I spent too long trying to get counts;
Teal 48,  Mallard 26,  Gadwall 14,  Wigeon 4.
Plus Mute Swan, Coot, Moorhen.

Couple of Chiffchaff in the trees.

Zoom in a bit..

Dabbling away

I suppose duckweed has some uses

Further on, the Sludge Beds had another Chiffchaff and a very nasty squall [those walkways are murder without chickenwire..!]. I found shelter and looked over the Retreat as the sun came out again;

A hint of the Levels

More than a hint!

Marshie came over and caused some havoc; ducks and gulls all over the place! :)

Not a sharp photo, but look at the contrast in the remiges;
a juvenile would show a uniform underwing and an immature a
messy one [due to moulting out juv. feathers], so this is an adult female*

Eventually, I wandered back up and took a 'slight' detour on my way home, as a Bittern had been seen at Bowling Green the day before. I figured with dusk being the best time to see a Bittern, I'd try my luck. The tide being high helped my decision, too.

Sluice still blocked

Long-billed Dowitcher

Showing well with Redshank and Shovellers

Lovely. :)

Scaup, showing less well

Spot the Snipe

Dusk

No Bittern. I wasn't surprised - it showed once, briefly, the day before, after all! - but it was still worth the try.


Be Seeing You...

[[*You may recall the Marshie that flew over my home earlier this year? The photo I got was awful, but you could see the paler undersides of the primaries in that, too. Just about.]]

Getting Back Out 1b. Not Getting Out.

Or, Oh Look At That Lovely Robin, Isn't It Cu- Aaaargh what did it do to that Coal Tit!!!!


Ahem.

Begbie the bird

You know it's true...

"Wha' you think you're lookin' a', eh??"

I was wondering if it would actually go for its reflection there, but evidently there wasn't quite the 'window effect' going on.

Uh-oh, it's seen me....

Other skygarden users proved less photogenic. 'Tis a pity nice birds [Robins are pretty but you can't call them nice, really!] aren't posing. But then, maybe that Robin has something to do with it..

Unbothered by Robin attack, another Patch fungus [there's got to be one, at least]

Lumpy Bracket

 
Less good, this seen over the Harbour on the 9th..

Que' est-ce que c'est?

Magnesium!

A good two dozen flares fired off by some individual from - it looked like - the kink in Princess Pier..?!?

I have no idea what gets into people's heads... [They were falling into the sea, which is 'safe' to H&S, but hardly to the environment....]




Finally, here's some properly pretty sky shots;

Moon at sunset

One of the serious sunrises

from last week

Proper birding post to come.


[Yikes...]


Be Seeing You...

Getting Back Out. 1, Yarner

Just a gentle amble about with the Folks in the gap between the fun weather.


Ok, definition of fun. But would have been fun weather if I hadn't been trying to recover from plague is a bit long.


So, Yarner in early winter. Nothing spectacular or indeed unusual on the bird front, but still nice to just be out.

Yeah, let's just hit the pics;

Assorted wildlife in shot.

I don't just mean the LBD, either.

 

 

Tit bands were, well, mobile, so were finch 'bands'. Getting anything on them was not easy

That little blob is a Marsh Tit, would you believe..

Ok, giving that a rest,

Someone's been busy

Hoping this will bring some more life to the ex-duck pond.

Inevitably [you knew this was coming], my eyes turned downwards, and the great fungal year has continued

[Slightly deer-munched] 

Yellow Swamp Brittlegill

Very large Common Funnel

Butter Cup

Sulphur Tuft

Birch Polypore

Blackfoot Polypore

Flat Oysterling

Yellowing Oysterling

More updates to come, as I have been out a bit.


Be Seeing You...