The Safari was keen to get out because as we drove along the Prom to work the sea looked bob on for spotting a mammal or two.
We didn't see any mammals but it wasn't a bad quarter hour though. A pair of Red Breasted Mergansers (P2 # 42) flew north in the middle distance, OK for starters!
Apart from the usual 2-300 Common Scoters nothing much was out there until a lone Curlew followed roughly the same track as the Red Breasted Mergansers. It was when we were tracking that that we heard a finchy call and turning round there were seven Siskins (P2 #43) coming our way at about eye-level just the other side of the wall, a great year bird but not only that a Patch 2 Lifer to boot!
Again we scanned for mammals without any joy until we picked up three distant ducks coming our way which turned into two male and a female Eiders (P2 #44) - all good, smiles all round. And then we found another pair sat on the sea beyond the first line of scoters.
All too soon our watch had to end mammal-less.
Lunchtime couldn't compete with that lot and was more or less a dead loss apart from a couple of Red Throated Divers.
Is it just us or are there a lot fewer Coltsfoots around than last year, but that's the beauty of plants and the variety in the seasons; the conditions dictate which plants will fare better than others in any given year.
Where to next? More of the same and the conditions look even better for mammal spotting on Patch 2 but will there be any to be spotted?
In the meantime let us know how who all the migrants were in your outback.
BTW have you seen RL's pics of the Slow Worms he found in the middle of Safariland at the weekend?
1 comment:
Now I know what to name these when I find them to photograph, though their are no signs of Spring at all yet on the Isle of Man.
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