No County For Old Birders. Pt.2, Cold, Wet, Not Miserable b) Defying The Rain

Having the first week of the year off work gave me the chance to hit a few sites sharpish. This I attempted, where possible.

Having the forecast for said week being RAIN! with a side order of RAAAAIIIIIN!!!! was proving less helpful, but like the title says..

The day after Slapton - following some hurried boot-drying, I can tell you - I headed North. An itinery with only one likely-to-be-vexed-by-rain species helped my hopes, but it wasn't going to be easy.

Especially starting off by being done over by my [BLEEP]ing satnav again into heading over what were basically linear pothole collections with a few patches of tarmac set on them....

But my li'l car survived and I got to Tamar Lake, where these 5 were, of course, riiiight over the far side.

Five little ducks,

all Lesser Scaup

A few other yearticks presented themselves, [told you I wasn't worried about Goosander. There were 13!] and after only a brief stop for a cuppa, I fled ahead of the rain...

Have a nice Marsh Tit, 

having a nice sunflower seed,

while I had a nice cuppa.

Fremington Quay seemed nice and dry, but no sooner had I thought 'Hey, no rain', than..  Yeah, you guessed it.

The rain had caught up and stayed with me - a constant, faithful companion - for the rest of the day. Never as hard as that which afflicted the southern part of the county, but nicely persistent and good and cold.

Anyways, back to the mission and all that;

Fremington Pill

Spot the Isbis*.

Any of them.

No, wait, you can't.....

Right. Longshanks, git yer pony.

Down the far end of said Pill;

Count the Cattle Egrets

Isbis? Nobis.*

Time for a workout.

Yelland isn't that far from Fremington Quay. In the rain. Via a small and not-that-sea-of-muddy-really look at the Saltpill Pond.

Always keep your eyes open, folks. Those boring wet fields may have anything in them.

Like this;

I got the Isbis*,

but I hadn't got the Spoonbill [yet]

That changed, too.

Let's cut a long, wet walk out for you.

Yelland Pond

[well, half of it]

Spot the Green-winged Teal.

Oh.

River?

Very scenic

Grey Plover

grey mud

grey rain

[ok, maybe not that]

Teal?

Er... Nope.

I'll cut a lot more work out, shall I? The tide went out a way. Then a way more.

I did not give up. I may have muttered a few choice phrases, but I did not give up.

Oh, look.

Green-winged Teal.

On my way back, many Linnet and a couple of Cetti's. The former more visible than the latter [though if my camera had behaved...] 

Nothing with them, though...

I got cold, wet, and rather footsore, but in no way miserable.

:D

Be Seeing You...

[[* Yes, yes it's Glossy Ibis, blah blah blah....]]

No County For Old Birders. Pt.2, Cold, Wet, Not Miserable a) Defying The Flood

The day after the day after I suffered delugus interruptus to my Glorious First attempt, I was out again, seeking Thcwewy Duckth and Others around and about Slapton.

The Ley was - as you might have expected after all that rain - rather high. It rained more, just to rub it in.

I was joined on and off this time by The Teacher and No.1 Son, while various water birds did their best to mess us about.

I'm going to cut to the 'Gotcha you varmint!' moment [technically my second, but we'll get to that] as it's a nice thumbnail and we have to think of our clickbait, after all...

Ring-necked Duck

[also a Coot's arse,

and reeds to show how

close they are]

He wasn't in Ireand Bay when The Teacher looked [after getting through a very flooded path to the viewpoint], but at the same time, I was down at Torcross;

The Artist is not so-named

for no reason

Hmm, interesting. Now let's look out the window,

Do you see what I saw?

A relocation beckoned for me, but first, on the way there.... Ooh, look at these characters;

If you know,

you know.

:D

Right, Stokeley Hide and...

Rain, yes. Rainbow, yes.

Ringer? Nope...

Four Goldeneye [2 and 2] were way off on the seaward side [as per usual for the species], but not a sniff of anything ringey.

The only grebe I'd already got.

Of course.

But wait, what's that lurking tune...??

Sounds like Derrrrrr-dum

Derrr-dum

Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-da-dah!

Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-da-dah!

Great White!

Nope, not getting tired of that one.

Five Shoveler arrived - not very usual for Slapton - but no Scaup of any kind.

Closest I could get,

Er....

Relocating myself northward, I faced the issue of getting through a very flooded way to look at Ireland Bay. I tried sneaking around the back, meeting a newbie for the year;

Grey Wagtail

I also - once I got past a fallen tree and a sea of mud - found knee-deep and then some water. Bugger.

Going around the longer way, I defied the flood successfully and so - only slightly squelchy of foot - got to the Ireland Bay platform in time to take that shot up there. And have 2 GWEs fly about in front.

Two egrets, one swan

One quite close

If only Spielberg knew...

Great Whites can fly!

Stopping it.

;)

Also of note on my travels;

Around since December

Oooh

Ahhh

[Yes, we were being rained on, quite hard...]

A female Goosander eluded me completely, but I wasn't too bothered. Being Scaup-less was more vexing, but them's the breaks.

Onwards, onwards [did I mention the  scope views of the RND were exquisite? No? They were :) ]

Be Seeing You...

No County For Old Birders. Pt.1, The Glori-ish First

After a year of far too much apathy and only 209 spp. in Devon, I am once again actively after a yearlist.

While you could call this a Big Year, I feel that having an actual job means that I can't truly dedicate myself to it in a manner that befits that title.

 

 

Anyways, after my little foray about the Exe [told you I had ulterior motives] the weather [VARIOUS COMMENTS DELETED] shifted and rain was forecast, incoming with prejudice.

Bugger.

Well, getting at it not optional [it's not a proper yearlist if you don't go for a Glorious First, imho], and things started better than expected.

Nothing was expected at midnight as the local idi- deni-      er, people... yes, people, clearly didn't have any access to timepieces of any sort [or were too 'merry' to look at them] as salvoes of fireworks opened up at about 20 to, then 10 to, and then continuously from 23:58.... I was leaning out of my window, very vocally expressing my annoyance at such, when a Tawny Owl went bombing by up the street, flushed by said barrage.

Ok, not happy about circumstances, but I'll take it. Species 1. Tawny Owl, 1/1/24 at 00:00 [and about 40 seconds]

Eventually thimgs quietened down enough for me to get some sleep.

But up again before dawn and the dawn chorus [2. Robin 3. Dunnock 4. Blackbird] was joined by a male Tawny hooting away with gay abandon.

A good omen.

Maybe.

I hit the Nose, where a nice variety of land birds met a few sea birds - most enjoyably, the female Eider was about the Buoy Farm near the 15 Common Scoter - kept me there a little longer than planned, but getting Eider meant I could skip Dawlish Warren and head straight for Topsham [useful with rain heading in, though it was blazing sunshine, look;

Morning!

Not exactly 'tipping down' yet...]

Plenty of GNDs about

Heading to Bowling Green, I noticed this

Stock Dove

Which certain birders walked right past [though they got a Mistle Thrush I totally missed, swings and roundabouts]

Also

Lady Marshie

Spot the Barwit

That Snipe again

Looking a bit more overcast? Yep, here comes the rain, there go my hopes of a new record...

But we surrender to nowt but Darkness!

[And then only after a good fight]

A damp lunch scoping waders from the Quay later; on to Stover!

Spot the not a Pochard?

Mandarin

Just

So

Very

Pretty.

Then to Yarner, in the vain hope that the rain would relent and birds appear.

It didn't.

They didn't.

93 spp. for the day, could have been worse.

And it was rather fun in places, despite being cold and wet and soggy*.

But like the title says, Devon is no county for old birders.

[Well, not if you mean it, anyway ;) ]

This may well be a theme**

And I shall

Be Seeing You...

[[* Yes, you can be. ]]

[[** The 'Pt.1' may well be a clue, there.? ]]

More Ketchup. Pt.2, Messing About The Exe

December tween-time and I decided to do a little birding about the Exe, for, er, reasons.

It was all sunny and lovely and so on. Though it took a fair while to find a few things, that was all part of the fun, right?

If you look down to my last post you'll see one of the results. Here are a few more;

Showy Snipe

Teal

Wigeon

Pintail

Pied Wagtail

Avocets

Spot the Pochard

But the undoubted star was this beauty;

Common Seal

So cute. :)

I am going to get with more regular posting, honest.

[Back to work, so less birding to distract me.. Boo hiss  ]

Be Seeing You...

So About That Backlog...

Kinda busy chasing birds right now.

I will get to it, though.

[Er, eventually]

In the mean time, here's a nice duckie;

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Some photos almost take themselves.

[From Last Year. I was up about the Exe, checking out things for a Certain Reason... You know, TGF and so on]

Anyways, I shall

Be Seeing You...

Hello January

In that time-honoured tradition of doing a review of the last year, I am again struck by the thought; why not just look at that bit on the left. You know, the archive of posts?

I have in the past gone to great lengths to assess the highlights of the past year, making a Top Ten and everything. I suppose it has a valid purpose.

But I can't help but think - with more than an eye on my ever-expanding backlog of posts in need of writing - what's the point?

Then again. What the hell.

A few notes, perhaps? A summary of sorts.

Last year I didn't go chasing yearticks in a defined area like a demented loon, and it told, with 209 species for Devon, plus that Forster's Tern, being my grand total. As I have so often said that "Any birder paying attention through the year in Devon will get 200", 209 ain't great shakes. [Assuming you cover ground, seawatch, and so on. But of course you do. ;) ]

2024 will be a little different, as I'm chasing Devon again.

But more on that elsewhen.

2023 had some serious highlights, and standing out has to be that magical day at Hope's Nose with The Teacher, The Veteran, and THOUSANDS of large shearwaters. Oh my sweet Goddess, that was something.

Seawatching was often a quiet affair, with weather effects and HPAI tolls, but when it worked, oh boy. Such as the Leach's Petrels, and that bird I photo'd but nobody can ID from said image alone [curses].

On land, finding out Wood Warblers aren't quite as gone as I'd feared [yet...], and the business with the harriers ["That's no Herring Gull, that's an adult male Hen Harrier!"]. A few wonderful days up on t'Moor, with photo'd Merlin and Things I Still Can't Talk About [sorry]. Little asian warblers, great big Alpine Swfts {plural!!!}, and a year-ending Beauty [look down, yes that one]. Baby GSWs coming to my Skygarden and moulting into grownups, Small Blue Butterflies on my Patch.

It wasn't all great. Circumstances, Fate, Destiny, Chance, and [worst of all] Having A Job conspired to prevent me seeing a single one of the yankee invaders in a record-breaking year [The Forster's doesn't count; seabird].

But that's birding [and Life, they say]. Ups and downs.

Those big shears, though....

Be Seeing You...

Out Of Order, But I Don't Care

Hope's Nose today and after a bit - ok quite a lot - of messing about and indeed getting rained on, I was able to get pixels of this little darling;

Well hello...

Female Black Redstart, along The Sole; first seen by PJ, picked up today by The Teacher. Showing slightly better than the male at Sandy Cove.!

Seawatching has been done, many divers, assorted, have been seen, also some sea ducks. There were Sandpipers, Purple, too.

But I fear all this - and indeed that seawatching post, and another post - will have to wait for January and a long ketchup series... Oh dear.

In the mean time, have another, as Her Ladyship eyes up The Teacher,

"Bugger, I'm surrounded"

Ah, what a way to end a year.

:D

Be Seeing You...