The Safari hasn’t seen much today. Barely a feather! The temperature before dawn on our Patch 1 alternative was only just above freezing and the wind-chill probably had it a couple degrees below.
The result of all that wintery stuff was that we got nothing at all and no Peregrines on their roosting ledges either.
Patch 2 was exposed to the wind from the north and it was the first time for a long time we’ve pulled the jacket tight to prevent a bad attack of wind in the willows. The light was good, the sea not too chopped up, the tide was rising but the birds failed to put in appearance. Just a handful of Common Scoters to keep us occupied. And they didn’t have the pulling power keep us occupied for long!
At lunchtime there was not a lot of difference apart from the light was bad and the tide was dropping. The wind was still cruelly cold.
The small number of Common Scoters were still faffing about but the increasing beach was proving a good hunting ground for an increasing number of gulls. None of the dozen or so Herring Gulls looked anything like PK’s probable American Herring Gull, there again they probably never will. A couple of Black Headed Gulls were joined by bird of the day...a cold and lonely Common Gull. Actually that’s not quite true, bird of the day, or more accurately ‘birds’ of the day were the first three seen on Patch 2 this morning. Three finchy things bouncing northwards that looked like they dropped on to the sea wall a little to our right just as we arrived. We legged it to the gate and down the slade a bit but couldn’t locate them, probably because they hadn’t stopped just dropped below the top of the wall to get out of the wind. Had that ‘hmmm...interesting’ look about them but we’ll never know if they were three of the local Linnets or something a bit more exciting.
The result of all that wintery stuff was that we got nothing at all and no Peregrines on their roosting ledges either.
Patch 2 was exposed to the wind from the north and it was the first time for a long time we’ve pulled the jacket tight to prevent a bad attack of wind in the willows. The light was good, the sea not too chopped up, the tide was rising but the birds failed to put in appearance. Just a handful of Common Scoters to keep us occupied. And they didn’t have the pulling power keep us occupied for long!
At lunchtime there was not a lot of difference apart from the light was bad and the tide was dropping. The wind was still cruelly cold.
The small number of Common Scoters were still faffing about but the increasing beach was proving a good hunting ground for an increasing number of gulls. None of the dozen or so Herring Gulls looked anything like PK’s probable American Herring Gull, there again they probably never will. A couple of Black Headed Gulls were joined by bird of the day...a cold and lonely Common Gull. Actually that’s not quite true, bird of the day, or more accurately ‘birds’ of the day were the first three seen on Patch 2 this morning. Three finchy things bouncing northwards that looked like they dropped on to the sea wall a little to our right just as we arrived. We legged it to the gate and down the slade a bit but couldn’t locate them, probably because they hadn’t stopped just dropped below the top of the wall to get out of the wind. Had that ‘hmmm...interesting’ look about them but we’ll never know if they were three of the local Linnets or something a bit more exciting.
After work we had a mooch with the pooch down the river to see if there was owt about - there wasn't! It was a nice cold evening.
But totally devoid of birdlife or invertebrate life or mammal life, except hominids and their flippin mutts. Frank's ball found its way in to a puddle or two and sure as eggs is eggs he followed it.
But totally devoid of birdlife or invertebrate life or mammal life, except hominids and their flippin mutts. Frank's ball found its way in to a puddle or two and sure as eggs is eggs he followed it. 
Where to next? Things have got to pick up on the patches soon, haven’t they?
In the meantime let us know what’s bouncing along in your outback.
2 comments:
Sounds like winter is actually coming where you are - over here we're finally getting the pleasant summer-like temps we had so little of in July and August! 60F/16C today! Frank doesn't seem to mind the cold.
Dave - whilst you were seeing "barely a feather" on wednesday I had much better luck.
An appointment took me Over Wyre, so a quick drive down Fluke Hall Lane was in order and rewarded by sightings of a couple of dozen whoopers & a couple of thousand PF geese - with more of the latter flying in the whole time.
Later, the light was so good I couldn't resist a lunchbreak at the Mere, where, along with the usual suspects were lots of Fieldfare flying over, many of which stopped off to feed, some with a flock of Linnets in the adjacent stubble fields. A cracking couple of hours birding :-)
Happy Days
Cliff
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