The Safari’s Patch 1 walk this morning didn’t produce much. Two each of Blackcap and Chiffchaff, a single Whitethroat and a Long Tailed Tit was heard – they have been very quiet of late.
With the sunshine we had hoped the Iberian Chiffchaff might have revealed itself by singing its ‘proper’ song but there was no sight nor sound of it, so is it still lurking furtively in the undergrowth or has it done a moonlight flit?
Out on Patch 2 a couple of young Gannets cruised around with three adults doing a bit of shallow diving. Four Sandwich Terns were found roosting on the beach and with the tide not too far out they were well within pic range but putting our hand in our pocket we discovered that the digiscoping camera was in our other coat...AAARRRRRGGGHHH. Several others were fishing with a single Arctic Tern just offshore further along the coast, much closer in than the Gannets. That was just about the sum total of it other than a Swallow swooping around low over the white horses quite some way out – from the way it was flying it looked like it was feeding; but on what??? Still not enough west in the wind to bring any Manx Shearwaters within range.
With the sunshine we had hoped the Iberian Chiffchaff might have revealed itself by singing its ‘proper’ song but there was no sight nor sound of it, so is it still lurking furtively in the undergrowth or has it done a moonlight flit?
Out on Patch 2 a couple of young Gannets cruised around with three adults doing a bit of shallow diving. Four Sandwich Terns were found roosting on the beach and with the tide not too far out they were well within pic range but putting our hand in our pocket we discovered that the digiscoping camera was in our other coat...AAARRRRRGGGHHH. Several others were fishing with a single Arctic Tern just offshore further along the coast, much closer in than the Gannets. That was just about the sum total of it other than a Swallow swooping around low over the white horses quite some way out – from the way it was flying it looked like it was feeding; but on what??? Still not enough west in the wind to bring any Manx Shearwaters within range.
After work the sun was out so it was back to Patch 1 for a listen for you -know-what, a 'normal' Chiffchaff was in the butterfly Zone and over by the playground in the 'favoured' trees and bushes we heard a 'Chiffchaff' that didn't seem to do enough chaffs in amongst the chiffs but was it the one? We listened to it for ages without locating it even though it was only a few yards away in the foliage which wasn't actually that dense! After several minutes we saw a flit and a bird of the right size chape colour and jizz hopped into view on twig in the open but before we could get fully onto it the mobile rang...a friend was telling us of a deer (Roe?) that had been seen earlier that day in the school playing field only a few hundred yards from where we were stood...how mad is that!!!???!!! But whilst on the phone we lost the bird in the foliage again so couldn't say if it was THE one or not, think so but not 100% sure...really need to hear that distinctive song again.
If anyone knows how to put WAV files on here let us know cos we have converted some of the longer videos from the other day for you to listen to.
Where to next? More of the same and lets hope this sunshine brings back THE song.
In the meantime let us know what's causing confusion in your outback
A quick note to let you know that at long last we are able to update the Solaris Centre website so if you have been waiting it is now live again...might even revamp it a bit if we have time!
2 comments:
Where the dickens has that deer come from??
My money is along the railway Cliff but sure is an unusual find for someone looking out of their bedroom window before setting off to work...but will the Butterfly Zone become the Deer Zone???
Cheers
D
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