The Safari was out with Frank last night for the early evening kick about. The ‘lower’ Song Thrush sang from the Golden Triangle all the while we were there. No sign of any Peregrines on their ledges but a a skein of about 100 Pink Footed Geese flew north directly overhead – one of those moments when you really don’t want to be looking up with yer mouth open! There was a horrendous racket from the Magpies as they began to come in to roost – sounded like there was quite a few gathering in there but we didn’t go over to count them.
Then it happened...we’ve been suffering from a twinge in the back of the leg for a few days now and almost back at Base Camp – twang and a groan/squeal of pain - what the ^%&^$&*** was that? Not only did we feel it we think we might have heard it go as well. A pulled muscle probably, thence followed a slow painful 50 yard hobble back to Base Camp; gee those steps up to the front door looked like something you might encounter on K2.
Consequently there was no early morning Patch 1 safari, Wifey very kindly taking over that duty today. Good job the Land Rover is an automatic as the chances of pressing a clutch this morning would have been slim to remote!
We did manage to stagger over the road on to Patch 2 for a pre-work shuffy. Lovely sunshine but still chilly. In fact we got to work without needing the lights on the Land Rover this morning – first time this year; spring is beginning to sprung...
The sunshine however did make it hazy over the sea. The tide was in so no beachy stuff beginning with ‘g’ to bore you with. In the distance just this side of the haze we had six individual Red Throated Divers, all going south. There was a bit of a swell which kept a decent sized flock of Common Scoters mostly out of sight in the middle distance. Closer in about 50 were easier to roughly count and whilst trying to get that count an auk sp flew over them heading further out to sea. Nearby probably the same two Great Crested Grebes as yesterday drifted past on the incoming tide.
Going to the ‘g’s’ a noticeable number of Common Gulls passed by heading towards the river mouth probably to a high tide roost.
The lunchtime session was a pleasant 20 minutes away from the desk. Leaving the front door a Pied Wagtail sang from the roof just above us to our left.
The sun warm on the back and the tide not dropped too far so everything was within very comfortable range. Plenty of gulls both on ‘normal’ Patch 2 and on the northern half, we had to flit between the two depending on where the worst doggy disturbance wasn’t. Three Great Black Backs included one well up the beach on the northern half, usually only see them hanging round the water’s edge. Best of the bunch and the only odd one we could pick put was a nice adult argentatus Herring Gull. Almost got a pic of it stood surrounded by ‘normal’ Herring Gulls but one of the eejits with the mutts got to them before we could get the camera set up.
Still plenty of uncounted Redshanks and a dozen or so Turnstones clambering about on the wall and wading through the runnels, but not so many Oystercatchers this arvo, unless you looked over our southern boundary in which case you would have seen the beach swarming with them.
Didn’t look too hard out to sea and it was still hazy especially looking towards the south and the sun but what we saw didn’t seem to have changed much since early doors.
Then it happened...we’ve been suffering from a twinge in the back of the leg for a few days now and almost back at Base Camp – twang and a groan/squeal of pain - what the ^%&^$&*** was that? Not only did we feel it we think we might have heard it go as well. A pulled muscle probably, thence followed a slow painful 50 yard hobble back to Base Camp; gee those steps up to the front door looked like something you might encounter on K2.
Consequently there was no early morning Patch 1 safari, Wifey very kindly taking over that duty today. Good job the Land Rover is an automatic as the chances of pressing a clutch this morning would have been slim to remote!
We did manage to stagger over the road on to Patch 2 for a pre-work shuffy. Lovely sunshine but still chilly. In fact we got to work without needing the lights on the Land Rover this morning – first time this year; spring is beginning to sprung...
The sunshine however did make it hazy over the sea. The tide was in so no beachy stuff beginning with ‘g’ to bore you with. In the distance just this side of the haze we had six individual Red Throated Divers, all going south. There was a bit of a swell which kept a decent sized flock of Common Scoters mostly out of sight in the middle distance. Closer in about 50 were easier to roughly count and whilst trying to get that count an auk sp flew over them heading further out to sea. Nearby probably the same two Great Crested Grebes as yesterday drifted past on the incoming tide.
Going to the ‘g’s’ a noticeable number of Common Gulls passed by heading towards the river mouth probably to a high tide roost.
The lunchtime session was a pleasant 20 minutes away from the desk. Leaving the front door a Pied Wagtail sang from the roof just above us to our left.
The sun warm on the back and the tide not dropped too far so everything was within very comfortable range. Plenty of gulls both on ‘normal’ Patch 2 and on the northern half, we had to flit between the two depending on where the worst doggy disturbance wasn’t. Three Great Black Backs included one well up the beach on the northern half, usually only see them hanging round the water’s edge. Best of the bunch and the only odd one we could pick put was a nice adult argentatus Herring Gull. Almost got a pic of it stood surrounded by ‘normal’ Herring Gulls but one of the eejits with the mutts got to them before we could get the camera set up.
Still plenty of uncounted Redshanks and a dozen or so Turnstones clambering about on the wall and wading through the runnels, but not so many Oystercatchers this arvo, unless you looked over our southern boundary in which case you would have seen the beach swarming with them.
Didn’t look too hard out to sea and it was still hazy especially looking towards the south and the sun but what we saw didn’t seem to have changed much since early doors.
Where to next? More of the same...
In the meantime let us know what the eejits preventing you from doing in your outback.
2 comments:
Oh dear Dave, old age, it comes to us all, you never know what will ''ping'' next :-)
Yikes, I hope you heal up quick Dave!
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