Missed in the mist?

The Safari woke up in a bit of a dilemma this morning. Last night's rain came a good few hours too early to drop a good crop of migrants but there could have been something somewhere. Where to go? We wanted to catch up with a Yellow Browed Warbler and had a choice of two locations. It was either Patch 1 where there are some big Sycamores that they like or Monty's favourite field where there are some good patches of trees and scrub and is closer to the coast. In the thick clinging wet mist we opted for the latter. We pulled up in the car by the entrance gate to see a little male Sparrowhawk sat there waiting for breakfast of House Sparrow, a big flock of which roost in the thick bushes to the right in the pic wot we took through the car window - the moment it heard the motor of the window winder it was off.

Winding our way round the pathways we only came across a couple of Robins and Blackbirds and heard a Wren. Not a migrant in sight, not much in sight at all in the thick mist. Should we have gone to Patch 1? We'll never know, but we later found out SD had found one of the little Siberian sprites right on the coast in one of his favourite 'Grotspots', so they were about - maybe tomorrow for us???

In the afternoon we headed for the high tide at Chat Alley, it would seem that the early year Purple Sandpiper may well have returned so we went down to the old boating pool to check out the wader roost. Walking down the cliff path we saw a Pied Wagtail land a little way in front of us and pose nicely on  the edge of the rocks - shame about the blurry camera shake though.

At a rough glance there were about 50 Redshanks and 25 Turnstones in the roost but we couldn't see the Purple Sandpiper, surely it was there somewhere as they do seem to be creatures of habit. Walking a little way to the north towards the first group of fishermen gave us a better angle and sure enough there it was tucked up right at  the back of the flock fast asleep.

Waiting around to see if it would wake up required patience and frequent scans of the misty sea. Out there a hundred yards or so beyond the low water mark was a dark blob, definitely a bird but too far for the bins to make out in poor visibility, all we could tell was a dark upper side, white underparts and pointy wings when it did a bit of a flap it was in the trough of the swell at this point so we couldn't see if the wings were long or short.

As it happened it started to swim south against the current and come a little nearer, now we could tell it was a Red Throated Diver and the course it was on would take it much closer in at the other end of the boating pool wall so off we went...it didn't appear down there! That was a shame as the sun was trying to come out and the light a lot better. with no sign of the diver we retraced our steps spotting a flash of white high above us on the cliff edge. A couple of Wheatears were flitting around. Risking a wet ar*e for the White-ar*ses (their pre-Victorian name) we sat on the wet concrete edge of the boating pool wall and fired a few shots off.

They were continually looking up for insects and then flying up flycatcher-like to grab them.

Unfortunately we didn't manage of shot of them performing their aerobatics, it was all over took quickly for our aging reactions so you'll have to make do with another perched pic, the old chain fence was one of their favoured alighting spots.

After a few minutes of intense flycatching they moved south further along the cliff and out of sight so we made our way back to the Purple Sandpiper, as luck would have it a Herring Gull had just landed close by  and shuffled the pack a bit waking up many of the sleeping waders including the Purple Sandpiper which had a little preen.

But shuffled round and went back to sleep again after a short minute.

Turning our attention back to the sea the Red Throated Diver was close to its original position deciding not to go south after all but at least it was a little nearer. Right on the limit of the 600mm but still on the 'wrong side' of the light. We got one passable pic for our Year Bird Challenge, Red Throated Diver (YBC 152) of a species we hadn't got on our 'hit-list' as we didn't think we'd find one close enough for a pic even though they are very common along our coast - here it is but don't laugh.

You can see the red throat patch - can't you?

Later we discovered that had we arrived at Chat Alley a few minutes earlier there might have been a chance of bumping in to an Osprey as one was seen on the Southside about 20 minutes after we parked the car, it may well have 'coasted' and it's about half an hour's flying time from here to there...dohhhh that five minutes again!

Where to next? A family day so maybe not a lot of chance to get out on safari.
In the meantime let us know who's not drifting quite close enough in your outback.