The Safari was out on Patch 1 yesterday evening and had the first Song Thrush for a while, a Great Spotted Woodpecker circled over the tops of the trees calling as it went. Not sure where it came from but it headed off high to the north in the end.
On the way back a sudden explosion of noise from a gang of Magpies put us onto a male Sparrowhawk which disappeared over the garden fences closely followed by a line of six Magpies who were ‘seeing it off the premises’.
Later the last round of the night gave us only a single ‘sseep’ from a passing Redwing.
Our early Patch 1 safari was around the alternative route due to heavy dew. Nothing out of the ordinary to report.
Patch 2 was positively dire. Cold! The flat calm sea gave us nothing at all, the beach had only a few gulls, a Redshank and an Oystercatcher. That was about the sum of it until a Pied Wagtail flew by. No other migrants were heard or seen this morning. We decided to have a traipse around the gardens just in case of a lost Yellow Browed Warbler (one nearly ringed at Heysham today - damn!!!), Radde’s /Dusky Warbler or even a Chiffchaff. Strangely we had none of these only a Dunnock and a dozen Greenfinches which at least was a 40% increase on yesterday’s flock – it all seems too quiet out there.
Our top secret secret is still top secret although information received this morning is pointing in the direction we hoped it would “***** are always tricky and ideally you'd want a ????? sample to be absolutely sure but I'd say they were *****” So what is our top secret secret? Anyone like to hazard a guess. (The *s & ?s have no bearing on the number of letters in the missing words.) We are awaiting further discussion and are on the hunt for whatever ***** is.
Almost total grey-out at lunchtime with exceptionally poor visiblity. A Grey Wagtail was, somewhat aptly, pick of a very limited bunch.
Where to next? More greyness and missed stuff probably.
In the meantime let us know if the sun is still shining where you are.
On the way back a sudden explosion of noise from a gang of Magpies put us onto a male Sparrowhawk which disappeared over the garden fences closely followed by a line of six Magpies who were ‘seeing it off the premises’.
Later the last round of the night gave us only a single ‘sseep’ from a passing Redwing.
Our early Patch 1 safari was around the alternative route due to heavy dew. Nothing out of the ordinary to report.
Patch 2 was positively dire. Cold! The flat calm sea gave us nothing at all, the beach had only a few gulls, a Redshank and an Oystercatcher. That was about the sum of it until a Pied Wagtail flew by. No other migrants were heard or seen this morning. We decided to have a traipse around the gardens just in case of a lost Yellow Browed Warbler (one nearly ringed at Heysham today - damn!!!), Radde’s /Dusky Warbler or even a Chiffchaff. Strangely we had none of these only a Dunnock and a dozen Greenfinches which at least was a 40% increase on yesterday’s flock – it all seems too quiet out there.
Our top secret secret is still top secret although information received this morning is pointing in the direction we hoped it would “***** are always tricky and ideally you'd want a ????? sample to be absolutely sure but I'd say they were *****” So what is our top secret secret? Anyone like to hazard a guess. (The *s & ?s have no bearing on the number of letters in the missing words.) We are awaiting further discussion and are on the hunt for whatever ***** is.
Almost total grey-out at lunchtime with exceptionally poor visiblity. A Grey Wagtail was, somewhat aptly, pick of a very limited bunch.
Where to next? More greyness and missed stuff probably.
In the meantime let us know if the sun is still shining where you are.
3 comments:
Hi Dave
I managed an hour at the Mere yesterday & bumped into Larry, who was showing me, or rather his associate was, some interesting photos on his mobile of possible signs of a certain type of wildlife. I wonder if they had anything to do with your top secret secret, I suspect they might?
Cliff
Come on Dave, I'm sh*t at guessing games, give us a clue, is it bird or Mammal, I guess i'm a little 'otter with the latter guess ?
Interesting indeed, aren't they Cliff?
Warren - you can guess away but all will be revealed in due course, once confirmations and secrecy clauses have run their course. Put it this way you think you were getting 'otter but it was bally cold here today.
cheers
D
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