A little big news; or should that be a big little news

The Safari wasn’t able to get out yesterday; too much rain and too many children to keep entertained not that we minded the later always lovely to see the little ones.  

This morning we heard a Chiffchaff calling from the back garden at Base Camp (that was before the little ones got up – not a lot of chance of hearing much after that :-) ) - is it the same one that’s been hanging around on the opposite side of the road, does it have a feeding circuit or is it a totally new one? A Blackbird was singing quite strongly too.

Being later than normal into work we didn’t get a chance to have a look over the wall but we did need to get some milk from the local shop and the walk across the gardens gave us our first sighting and only the third record of a Wren here this year – where have they been???

A flock of 17 Greenfinches feeding on the juicy red hips of the Rosa rugosa bushes was nice to see.

At lunchtime the sun was nearly warm and there wasn’t much breeze – it was actually pleasant and a big change from yesterday’s totally windy washout. The light was crystal clear, no haze what-so-ever and the sea almost flat with barely a white horse to be seen. Having said that we didn’t see much! Plenty of Common Scoters as is the norm now and not a lot else. A handful of distant Red Throated Divers flew past, all heading south as did three auks sp and three Shelducks.

We were thinking it wasn’t that interesting out there when we caught sight of a juvenile Herring Gull fluttering around on the surface. At first we thought is was plunge-diving for surface feeding fish but on closer examination it never rose out of the water. We’d a feeling it was trapped in some litter, a floating piece of lost fishing net perhaps.

As we were watching it’s struggles to break free a Little Gull flew past, wasn’t really expecting one of those today! We followed that northwards until we lost it against the sea. Going back to the struggling gull a few minutes later to discover it was still there but its flapping had attracted another young gull and we hoped the same tangly fate wasn’t going to befall that one too. Again a Little Gull came past this time from the north but much more distant. Same or different?

Unfortunately we ran out of time as with the conditions as they were we would have liked to stayed out a lot longer, but would we have found anything more exciting if we had? S’pose we’ll never know.

Where to next? Now the hour has gone back it’s Patch 2 or bust until the weekend’s safaris for a few months.

In the meantime let us know what drifted elegantly through your outback.