Some sunshine at last.

At long last the sari has had a little sniff of limp winter sunshine. Not a lot you understand but at the moment a single sunbeam is extremely welcome. How long will it last? Wind is still blowing up but nothing like the 60mph gusts we had last night.
No visit to patch 1 this morning as poor Frank was of to the vets first thing for his op – got himself a six inch long scar on his belly to show off to his mates now.
Patch 2 at lunchtime was almost pleasant for the ten minutes or so we managed to get out for. The usual Common Scoters were there, bouncing on the waves as they do – tough little cookies these ducks. Really difficult to count in the conditions but I’d guestimate at between 100 and 150 altogether. Two adult Kittiwakes scythed their way south through the waves followed by a nicely marked 1st winter bird a bit closer in a few minutes later. A Great Blacked Backed Gull had a look of a giant Manx Shearwater as it careened through the troughs. Best sighting was saved ‘til last – what looked suspiciously like two light phase Arctic Skuas travelled south together in the middle to far distance. Some thing on, or in, the water caught the eye of one of them and it wheeled round and dropped to the surface, the other kept on going until it was right in the sun and we could watch it no more. A third adult Kittiwake was seen just before the calling of the desk got too strong and we had to return back indoors.
Great to be out and not get wet!
Couple of pics for you from yesterday – the Magpie appeared as if out of nowhere hopping down the ridge on the roof then hovered for a milli-second before clinging on to the wall to investigate whatever it was it thought it might have seen.

Don’t know where it came from as I had been watching out of the kitchen window for a digi-scoping opportunity…which in the end we got...our first attempt. Bear in mind this is taken through dirty double glazed window on the dullest of afternoons through 15m (50’) of intervening garden with a very basic cheapo camera, but Goldfinches are always nice! There’s definitely room for improvement but we’ll get there – eventually.

Where to next – Patch 1 trips are curtained until Frank recovers from his op but there really ain’t no point being there over an hour before first light anyway. If the Peregrine is on the water tower we could probably see it from his reduced ‘dry’ walk depending on the wind direction. So it’ll probably be Patch 2 news only for the time being unless we can get out at the weekend but with the large number of invalids to be attended to that is looking unlikely.
In the meantime let us know what operations are being performed in your outback.