Tuesday 17 September 2013

Got one - wrong one

The Safari went straight to the bottom end of Patch 2 this morning and saw nothing, not a sniff of any roosting Turnstones never mind any Purple Sandpipers, so it was off to work where we turned on the computer and while it logged in - takes for ever - we grabbed the scoped and shot over the road to the wall. The tide was just about reaching the toe of the wall and the waves were still huge. We just knew there was a Leach's Petrel out there for us. We looked intensely at every wave without joy. then we saw a small fleck of dark against the white foam were we in? No, it was 'just'  an Arctic Tern and it was the only bird of note we saw.
At lunchtime we were back out and looked down the wall and saw a Turnstone pecking around on the newly revealed seaweed...best check if there are any others there. There was...only one other bird - the Purple Sandpiper! (P2 #76) Now we just need it to stick around until we get back to Patch 2 at the start of November so as we can get some pics of the little blighter.
We spent as long as we dared staring at the waves without any joy at all; to rub salt, sand and foamy spray into our wounds over 100 were seen at Hilbre Island not too far away and almost in view - darn that wind with not enough south in it!
Where to next? Well that's it for a few days or a week or so, might get out tomorrow but we've got quite a lot to get ready for going into hossy first thing Thursday.
In the meantime let us know what cheated you out of the biggy in your outback.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow.. So you have had a trip and tour in the countryside. It's a really lovey place. There are a lot of places to go in there like taking oban wildlife trips. Oban has a very diverse ecosystem. You'll see amazing animals, birds and more.