The Safari was back on Patch 2 this morning a little later than anticipated but at least we got out when for a while it was looking like we wouldn't be able to. For some reason we went a slightly different way past the Mirror Ball and that took us to the 'wrong' place to watch from. Fortuitously before we realised (we must have been in some sort of daze this morning) we were in the wrong location we spotted a Sea Slater on the top of the wall. Our first of the year, a big un too!
It was when we got our phone out to take the pics that we realised we were stooped more than we normally are and looking around saw we were one chunk of wall to the left of where we thought we were - duhhhh. Relocating to the 'proper place' we put the scope on the wall and our eye to it without having to bend and saw...naff all! Well slightly more than that a few Common Scoters in the chop and a pair of Eiders flying towards the estuary and that was the lot.
Our lunchtime look was even briefer and even less exciting.
At five to going home time we got a txt from the nature reserve telling us there was a female Common Scoter there. We seen a small number there over the years and the prognosis is often not good, they're either ill or oiled. We arrived in great light and found it immediately in exceptional light, what a shame we didn't have the proper camera with us. Common Scoter (MMLNR #73) on the Patchwork Challenge list - happy days , hope it stays for others to catch up with it before it moves on fit as a flea. There was also a Chiffchaff reported but we didn't have time to hang around cos we had a delivery later in the afternoon, if we'd have stayed it would have come even earlier than it did!
On the way out there were no builders' vans outside the new visitor centre and we saw all the thatching had been finished and was looking rather smart. The reed wasn't cut from the reserve but has come from elsewhere in the country.
Where to next? Will Patch 2 produce tomorrow, let's hope so.
In the meantime let us know who turned up unexpectedly in your outback.
1 comment:
That Sea Slater looks a real brute, I reckon you're lucky it didn't have your finger off.
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