Birds, Glorious Birds!

I haven't had the chance to get anything on here during the week, but then again not that much has happened, apart from the sensational Corn Bunting of course. A real patch mega! I didn't get to see it until Friday morning when Gav kindly 'held my hand' so to speak, because I'm a big sissy who's afraid of angry farmers with purple faces ( anyone old enough to remember the Joe and Petunia public service ads featuring such a character in the 1970's?  Great stuff, See it here.) having been shouted at in the same field last year. Not much to look at of course but great 'tick value'. No photo's of the Corn Bunting from me but here's one of a purple-faced farmer instead ( much less scary than the real thing though!)

Yesterday though, not being put off too much by last Monday's Buff-breasted Sandpiper dip, Bun and I decided to try for the one at Northam Burrows in North Devon. Almost as soon as we arrived we spotted a few familiar faces and heard that the Buff-breasted Sandpiper was still present. It was quite distant on the salt marsh and partially obscured by vegetation much of the time, but it was a very welcome lifer for us both. 

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Bun enjoying his latest lifer with some Somersetians in the background?

Well, some of these are from Somerset anyway.

Also on the salt marsh and much more obliging was this little beauty.

Lapland Bunting.

It came nice and close on several occasions while we were watching the Buff-breast, so there was really no need for this kind of thing...

...especially when people hadn't seen it yet. 

This guy was right beside me when I took the above photos of the bird, how much nearer did he need to be!!?

As if those two lovely birds weren't enough, the Grey Phalarope also put in an appearance; a very obliging individual too. Usually Phaaropes look so agile and graceful as they bob about in the waves. This individual looked quite incongruous waddling around on the mud, very unsteady on its feet. Like 'a phalarope out of water'. Its instability wasn't helped by the windy weather either and several times it was literally blown over!

After battling the wind and having a good old feed it decided to take a nap. Much to our amusement it chose to do this in a small puddle! 

 Brian digiscoping the Phalarope which was safely tucked up in its little puddle; the vast acreage of water ensuring  its safety from all but the most wily of predators!

"Safe as houses me!"

Here's a video - Phalarope vs.Wind. 

After a superb day in North Devon, the good birds still kept rolling in! I was just nearing my drive when I noticed the gulls 'going up' on the estuary. I drove up to Coronation Corner and there was the Osprey ( a bird first seen on Friday, but I hadn't caught up with it until now). It soon caught a small mullet and flew off to its favoured woodland, far from any public rights of way, which is a shame because it's great to watch one eating its catch. The sky was very grey and dull so photos weren't an option on this occasion. I couldn't resist taking this one though..

Majestic Osprey gliding over the 'Racal Rubble' ( remains of a factory which have been piled up here for over two years now!) Also in the shot is my house, so I could've just gone home and seen it through the window, not the same though and I don't 'need' it on my house list.

Later in the evening I popped down to Black Hole Marsh where the Osprey was again briefly on show. I was hoping to get a good view of one or both of the resident Barn Owls. Well I certainly did, with one of the birds flying straight at me on one occasion. It didn't see me until it was about 10ft away and then just deftly swerved around me. Wonderful! Then it perched up on a log pile and posed beautifully, I tried to get photos even though it was past 7 o'clock and thus getting dark. They're not too bad considering. I did have to use a horribly high ISO!

 Glorious!

Today I've been out and about on patch a bit. I haven't seen anything new but there's still plenty to see. A flock of nine Bar-tailed Godwits on the estuary is an unusually high number for the patch.

Bar-tailed Godwit.

I've also seen the Osprey twice today, the first time this morning it caught quite a nice sized fish but this afternoon on two separate occasions it had to give up fishing due to constant harrying by the local Carrion Crows. Conditions were better for a photo this afternoon though.

Definitley a bird with the x-factor!

Lastly, while a small group of Osprey admirers were standing at Coronation Corner, this little chap was found hitching a lift on someone's clothing.

What a hairdo! The punk rocker of caterpillars.

Larvae of the Sycamore Moth

A Wonderful Evening's Birding

I  thought I'd spend a nice quiet couple of hours down at Black Hole Marsh/Colyford Common this evening. Seeing as it was the first dry and sunny evening for a few days several other local birders had a similar idea. Black Hole Marsh was on top form after having been drained for the construction of the new hide and 'gangplank' arrangement. 'Star of the show' this evening was a Spotted Redshank ( less than annual on patch) which dropped in from the north. I was immensely pleased with myself for spotting and identifying it in flight, having only heard one calling once before. It landed on the far side of the marsh, so gave reasonable views but no real photo opportunities. When I say it was the 'star bird' I might not be being totally accurate, it was indeed the rarest bird on show this evening and a couple of locals even 'twitched' it, but the remaining Ruff (there were two earlier in the week) was getting a lot of the attention merely for being a 'showy tart' and we all like one of them! Other birds on the marsh were good numbers of Dunlin and Ringed Plovers (30+ of each), Common Sandpipers 3, Green Sandpipers 5, Greenshank 1, Black-tailed Godwit 7 and a Wheatear. Bun and I popped over to check Colyford Common/Marsh and saw another Wheatear, 4 Greenshanks, 2 Green Sandpipers and the two elusive Wood Sandpipers that have been around for a while. A great bonus came when Bun spotted that the Barn Owl which resides on the opposite side of the valley from the Colyford hide was out of its nest box and perched in a tree. After a few minutes it flew off, but reappeared later at Black Hole Marsh, much to the assembled birders' delight. It hunted along the ditch and bank at the southern edge for a couple of minutes before being 'seen off' by the inevitable Crow attack. A superb end to a wonderful evenings birding! ( the Barn Owl that is, not the subsequent Crow attack).Here follows divers pictorial representations, or indeed, loadsa photos!

The'embyonic' new hide

This is a Spotted Redshank, HONESTLY!

The Spotted Redshank Twitch.

 Featuring Gavin Haig, who for a while (or so it seemed) was also heading for 'less than annual' status!

The elusive pair of Wood Sandpipers, showed annoyingly briefly.

Far too many Ruff photos.

Seeing as Gavin's shown you how well the Panasonic Lumix FZ38 takes photos of close Ruffs, I'll show you how disappointing the Canon SX1 is proving to be, this being the very best of an awful bunch, I've had the SX1 for about three months now and can categorically state that it isn't a patch on my old S3IS... ....so far. Though there's still time to 'crack it' I suppose.

Digiscoped Shots

(It was too near most of the time!)

I knew there was no chance of getting a decent photo of the Barn Owl with the SX1 in the fading light so I set it to video, something it is good at (and I haven't tried the HD video yet) here's the resulting very short clip of the Barn Owl hunting and then being mobbed by a Crow. You can see my house in the background at 0.70.

Finally, I don't suppose anyone is the slightest bit interested to find out how my optically challenged guinea pig is getting on, but I'm gonna tell you anyway! After two weeks she was finally given the all clear by the vet this afternoon. He's saved her eye physically, but she will never have any sight in it. Seeing as her name is Sparkle, I've fashioned her a beautiful diamanté eye-patch made from the finest cubic zirconia available on Ebay. ;-)

Bling!!