The Safari was pleased to see the Peregrine on the tower this morning. It was away and facing into the chilly stiff breeze out towards the lightening sky, thinking about breakfast?
Nothing much else about on Patch 1 but getting back to Base Camp after brekkie we looked out of the bedroom window to see if the Peregrine was still there, it wasn’t, and noted five Waxwi... sorry, Blackbirds in next doors small Rowan tree, they’ve eaten all the berries from the larger one and ours hasn’t grown above the height of the fence yet, think it’s stunted for some reason. Still none of the peachy wonders in town – how long will we have to wait?
A lovely calm flat sea greeted us at Patch 2 and the beach was full of birds. We counted over 400 Oystercatchers but this was a tiny proportion of the numbers out of range to the south. Among them on ‘our’ bit of beach were 11 Redshanks with two more in the runnel under the seawall, and three Sanderlings. Like the Oystercatchers there were many more, what were almost definitely, Sanderlings further down the beach. The couple of hundred or so gulls didn’t produce anything of note although again there were several thousand out of range to the south.
Out at sea it was a little disappointing with only two Cormorants fishing the shallows behind the surf and no more than a handful of Common Scoters. The conditions were ideal for picking out a mammal of any description.
Nothing much else about on Patch 1 but getting back to Base Camp after brekkie we looked out of the bedroom window to see if the Peregrine was still there, it wasn’t, and noted five Waxwi... sorry, Blackbirds in next doors small Rowan tree, they’ve eaten all the berries from the larger one and ours hasn’t grown above the height of the fence yet, think it’s stunted for some reason. Still none of the peachy wonders in town – how long will we have to wait?
A lovely calm flat sea greeted us at Patch 2 and the beach was full of birds. We counted over 400 Oystercatchers but this was a tiny proportion of the numbers out of range to the south. Among them on ‘our’ bit of beach were 11 Redshanks with two more in the runnel under the seawall, and three Sanderlings. Like the Oystercatchers there were many more, what were almost definitely, Sanderlings further down the beach. The couple of hundred or so gulls didn’t produce anything of note although again there were several thousand out of range to the south.
Out at sea it was a little disappointing with only two Cormorants fishing the shallows behind the surf and no more than a handful of Common Scoters. The conditions were ideal for picking out a mammal of any description.
No Patch 2 visit as we had an appointment with the Rangers and some bat boxes on Patch 1.
Hopefully one or two might be used by our local Pipistrelles next spring.Then we went to investigate tales of unusual beasties on the beach at North Shore after the recent storms.
Plenty of Herring Gulls about, some had happened across a dead Dab.
Cute, aren't they?
These two were squabbling over a small Starfish.
We got all arty with the wavelets washing over the pebbles as the tide ebbed.
A Sanderling appeared and whizzed around the beach for a while.
Our best find was this Sea Mouse, Britain's largest worm (Annelid variety). Look at the colour of those 'optic fibre' hairs, the camera can't do them justice unfortunately - totally iridescent..
More arty m'larky.
Where to next? Back to the patches with a bit more normality.
In the meantime let us know what's worth an arty shot in your outback.
Heres a vid of a Magpie pretending to be a Blue Tit, anyone else seen them do this?
And here are the famous Tree Sparrows.
1 comment:
That Sea Mouse is extraordinary Dave, what a great find!
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