Madogs and Englishmen

The Safari yet again precious little to whet your appetite for wildlife with. The Peregrine was asleep on the narrow ledge late last night but gone by the time we headed out this morning. Quite a few moths were buzzing around the Privet flowers in the warm still conditions, shame one of the neighbours has ripped his hedge out this week- why do they do that when the bushes are full of flower? Wonder if a suitably qualified ecologist checked for birds’ nests before work started too... of course one did...yeah right!
Out on Patch 2 it was as dead as the proverbial Dodo. Full tide and nothing but a few gulls to look at.
By lunchtime the beach was full of holiday makers enjoying the warm sunshine. Directly out in front of us was large ship, well not huge but much bigger than the usual anglers light craft...a proper boat. As it came towards us it turned enough for us to read the name...the Prince Madog a marine research vessel run by a nearby university.
Whilst watching that beedling about, there wasn’t much else out there, we saw our male Common Scoter back in its usual position...it must be firmly anchored. Around and about it a dozen, at most, Sandwich Terns fished and were generally successful bringing up fish of about three inches long. Nice to watch and listen to, as they were quite vocal. We weren’t expecting what we saw next...a Bonxie came from the north low over the water and wapped straight in to the terns. There ensued a full blown aerial chase which made the weekend’s Red Arrows look like a bunch of amateurs...OK they can go fast in a tight bunch and make nice patterns but they can’t jink, twist, dive and climb all at the same time, Bonxies might be big but they’re not half agile! Needless to say the Sandwich Tern lost its lunch. Once the Bonxie had won its fish it resumed its southerly journey.
A good find and worth a brew!
Where to next? More of the same but you never know what the same will produce.
In the meantime let us know who lost a fish in your outback