Monday 31 January 2011

Distant duck delivers on damp, dreary, dismal day

The Safari has little to say today - sorry.
The Song Thrush was heard briefly from Base Camp as we set off for Patch 1 which was a relief cos by the time we walked round to the Golden Triangle it had stopped so we could easily have missed it. Magpies in Magpie Wood were moving about a bit too much; we got somewhere between 50 and 60 of them.
No time or light for an early Patch 2 safari but a cold miserable look out to see at lunchtime gave is a pair of Red Breasted Mergansers (104, P2 37) sitting way out in the distance with a couple of Herring Gulls.
A look through the gulls on the beach was thwarted by a yellow waterproof clad bait digger wandering all over the place and three street-urchins who looked like they should have been in school but were probably already 'excluded'. We had hoped to check out the Common Gulls for any that resemble a Franklin's Gull as was noted from a beach on the South-side recently, that one may have 'good' but very hard to tell from the one record shot. With all the disturbance there were few gulls about so no chance to look for this distinctive individual either which 'goes missing' from Seaforth for days at a time. 15 Redshanks and six Sanderlings hit the notebook before everything was flushed.
Where to next? With 24 species of birds in the local area we haven't seen yet this year we might try a little further afield at lunchtime tomorrow, otherwise it'll be mormal service from the Patches.
In the meantime let us know who's pretending to be what in your outback.

1 comment:

Monika said...

Nice alliteration there Dave. Yikes, 24 local targets? You're going to pass me up in no time.