The Usual Suspects

I've been out on patch a couple of times today but haven't seen anything new,  just the usual suspects, which at the moment are worth seeing! Early this morning I saw the Wryneck from the hide at Seaton Marshes after only having distant views on Friday (same hide aversion as Gav, I'm not proud of my antisocial streak, I just have to live with it ;-)) I (satisfyingly) had the hide all to myself this morning and was able to set my scope up and digiscope it and everything! It wasn't going to be easy to get a good photo but I got these.

First it was in the shade...

But it wasn't any easier when it came out into the early morning sun.

I've seen the Osprey catch two helpings of Grey Mullet on the river today. I wasn't even looking for it. I just happened to be driving past at the right time. Twice! ;-) On the second occasion it temporarily alighted on one of the tram poles with its catch. 

About 10 seconds later...

This happened..Unsurprisingly!

Then this afternoon I received an invitation to join Gav looking for migrants on a cold and windy Beer Head. How could I refuse? Actually it wasn't all that cold and I felt like a right numpty in all my 'mountaineering gear'! After three and a half hours of  yomping around the fields ( neutralizing the artery clogging after-effects of an earlier jam and custard doughnut, or so I'd like to think!) we'd seen about four Chiffchaffs, a single Wheatear,  and a  few (twenty or so) Meadow Pipits. Gav also had a few additions to his Beer Head yearlist (including Mallard on the estuary, scoped from Beer Head! Pathetic or what?))

We also had a look for ( yes, you've guess it) the Corn Bunting. It was still in the same field with the Yellowhammer flock and proffering crippling views. Well they would have been if we weren't so far away.

Wow! Stunning shot of stunning brown blob.

This just wouldn't do. Minor naughtiness followed, allowing this...

Stunning. Brown. Moulting. Tailless.

 Two thirds of a Corn Bunting

Earlier in the week, Thursday I think, I popped over to The East Devon Commons to look for some fungi that I particularly wanted to see. I'd read about a good location in Matt Prince's Birdforum Thread. Once there, I soon found the fungi in question, the deadly poisonous and appropriately named Death Cap. 

Several of a group of seventeen Death Caps growing alongside the road.

They look quite innocuous, aside from their sickly green colouring I suppose.

Eating  just one would kill an adult though.

 I saw lots of fungi at this location but I'm rubbish at identifying most of them, here's a couple I  do know though. 

A Bay Bolete, stains blue when pressed- like so.

Fly Agaric.

The quintessential toadstool

White Helvella.

I spotted this  ugly specimen at Trinity Hill Woods yesterday, where I also had a very unexpected patch year tick, a Grasshopper Warbler no less! Quite a late one. When I almost trod on it, it jumped up into a tiny sapling just a few feet away and  gave great views. Well, until I reached for my camera anyway.

 Typical!